The introduction of nuclear medicine began in the mid 1920’s when George de Hevesy administered radionuclides to lab rats. Introducing …show more content…
This article is considered one of the most important articles released in the nuclear medicine field because it popularized the practice. Widespread use of nuclear medicine began in the early 1950’s. Radionuclide knowledge expanded and the first imaging techniques were implemented with this new knowledge.
In 1971 nuclear medicine was officially recognized as a medical specialty. Many medical boards were formed as a result, such as the American Board of Nuclear Medicine, and the American Osteopathic Board of Nuclear Medicine. Nuclear medicine was cemented as a stand alone specialty in 1974. Imaging techniques such as positron emission tomography (PET) were developed in the 1980’s by David E. Kuhl and Roy Edwards. The invention of the PET also led to the invention of other imaging techniques such as SPECT and CT …show more content…
Dosage amounts used in therapy are significantly higher than that of an x-ray, however, depending on what sort of treatment is being applied, exposure can be much less, or much more than an average daily exposure that a human would normally encounter. Concern for low level radiation exposure has always been present, and because of this, ALARP was created. ALARP stands for As Low As Reasonably Practicable, it used to stand for As Low As Reasonably Achievable, however, it was believed that this puts less emphasis on the low radiation dosage, and more on experimenting and testing, so it was changed. Radiopharmaceuticals are carefully monitored and tested to ensure as little exposure as possible to patients, doctors, and the rest of