The Nuclear Medicine Radiographer
Hello, I'm BJ, the Deputy Chief Technologist in the department. I initially trained as a diagnostic radiographer in the 1980s and subsequently specialised in Nuclear Medicine. Soon after specialising I undertook a postgraduate qualification in radionuclide imaging and more recently have undertaken specialised training in Radiopharmacy.Many of my colleagues have a radiography background (either as diagnostic or therapy radiographers) but others have undertaken a Medical Physics qualification so we are a diverse bunch!
My working day often starts in the Radiopharmacy, which is a self-contained unit very similar to a pharmacy manufacturing unit. In this unit we prepare all the radioactive injections which are called radiopharmaceuticals - the tracers are very short-lived and have to be prepared each day. The unit is an ultra-clean area that is licensed and inspected by the national authorities so the procedures are quite complicated.
Once I or one of my colleagues have prepared the radiopharmaceutical I will need to find a vein in your arm to give you the injection. Apart from the slight 'pin-prick' of the injection this isn't normally painful and there are no side-effects.
Depending on the type of investigation that you are having the injection may be followed immediately by a scan or it might be necessary to wait a few hours for the tracer to work. When it is time to do the scan I will ask you to lie down on the couch, which is then positioned underneath the gamma camera. The gamma camera has to be very close to get a good picture but you are not completely enclosed so it's not as claustrophobic as a CT scan or an MRI scan. The scan typically takes about half an hour as the couch moves underneath the camera. Sometimes the camera will need to rotate around the couch to allow us to see inside the body in more detail.
The camera is able to detect the radioactivity from the injection that I have given you - the distribution of the activity is an indicator of what is happening in the body. The image is displayed on a computer monitor and at the end of the examination it is printed onto a small film. At the end of the study and before you leave the department I will review the images. Later a doctor who specialises in Nuclear Medicine will write a formal report on the examination. Their report will be sent back to your consultant.