Nuclear Medicine is a branch of medical imaging that uses radioactive materials to diagnose or treat a variety of diseases, including many types of cancers, heart disease, and certain other abnormalities within the body. Nuclear medicine procedures are non-invasive and usually painless medical tests that assist physicians in diagnosing medical conditions.
These procedures often identify abnormalities very early in the progression of a disease – long before some medical problems are apparent with other diagnostic tests. This early detection allows a disease to be treated early in its course when there may be a more successful prognosis.