Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
The Emory Division of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging offers the latest innovations and equipment in the field, including two dedicated PET (positron emission tomography) scanners and a cyclotron that provide scans for patients. The division is also part of the many research projects conducted by the Emory University School of Medicine faculty.
Nuclear medicine procedures scan organ functions with the use of radioactive compounds, or radioisotopes. The compounds are given to patients either by injection in a vein or by administering a radiopharmaceutical or "tracer" drug.
Division director David Schuster, M.D., works with the staffs at Emory University and Emory Crawford Long Hospitals and at affiliated institutions including Grady Memorial Hospital and the V.A. Medical Center.
Our Nuclear Medicine Laboratories, including PET, Nuclear Cardiology and Nuclear Medicine, have received a comprehensive accreditation by ICANL (Intersocietal Commission for Accreditation of Nuclear Labs). ICANL accreditation signifies that a facility has been reviewed by an independent agency that recognizes the laboratory's commitment to quality testing.
PROCEDURES
The radiopharmaceutical or tracer administered to a patient contains a small amount of radioactive material that is relatively harmless. Depending on its composition, the tracer concentrates in different body organs. The patient is then placed next to a gamma camera to take images of the part of the body being studied. The resulting images are used to evaluate abnormalities in all major organs, such as the heart and the endocrine system.
Featured procedures include:
- Screening for Coronary Calcifications; a process that evalutates potential blockage in the heart's arteries
- Cardiac Imaging
- Tumor Staging
- Renal Imaging
- Specialized Kidney Function and imaging studies for obstruction, hypertension and other conditions
- Myocardial Perfusion and function studies
- Gated Blood Pool studies
- Bone Scans
- Systematic Radiation Therapy for Non-Hodgkins Lymphphoma (investigative protocol)
- High Dose I-31 MIBG for Neuroendocrine tumors that have spread(investigative protocol)
- Sentinel Lymph Node Imaging (breast cancer and melanoma staging)
- Thyroid Therapies and Thyroid Cancer
- Bone Pain for Cancer and FDG PET
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CONTACT INFORMATION
Department of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
1364 Clifton Rd., NE
Atlanta Georgia 30322
Scheduling: 404-778-5364; Fax: 770-712-0945
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STAFF
- David Schuster, MD, Director, Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
Clinical Director, Center for Positron Emission Tomography
- Naomi P. Alazraki, MD
Chief of Nuclear Medicine at V.A. Medical Center
- Andrew T. Taylor, MD
Professor of Radiology
- William A Fajman, MD
Chief, Nuclear Medicine at Grady Memorial Hospital
- Raghu Halkar, MD
Chief, Nuclear Medicine and Clinical PET/EUH
- Scott Bartley, MD Assistant Professor of Radiology
Director, Nuclear Medicine Residency
- Arturo Lira, MD
Assistant Professor of Radiology
- Brad Wyly, MD
Associate Professor of Radiology
- James Galt, PhD
Director of Nuclear Medicine Physics
- John Aarsvold, PhD
- David Cooke, MSEE
- Ernest Garcia, PhD
- Mark Goodman, PhD
- Tracy Faber, PhD
- Bahjat Faraj, PhD
- Elizabeta Krawczynska, PhD
- Rauf Sarper, PhD
- John Votaw, PhD
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Do nuclear scans hurt?
Nuclear scans are painless other than the discomfort of a needle stick.
Are there people who should not get a nuclear scan?
People who have certain allergies or blood disorders and women who are pregnant or breastfeeding should not have scans.
Will a nuclear medicine scan make a person radioactive?
The isotopes or compounds that used for the procedures are given in tiny, relatively harmless amounts. They lose their radioactivity quickly and pass out of the body within 24 hours.
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