Medical+Treatments

** Created by Jess Holloway **
 * Medical Treatments Using Radiation **

Radiation oncology is the medical specialty concerned with prescribing radiation, and is distinct from radiology, the use of radiation in medical imaging and diagnosis. Most commonly used to treat cancer, radiation has many uses as medical treatments. Ø ** __ X-Rays __ ** - X-rays are widely used in medicine to reveal the architecture of the bone and other soft tissues and to find out any abnormality in the form of fracture, growth of tumor, and much more. - It is also used in dental imaging.

- X- rays can penetrate or pass through the human body and produce shadow-like images of structures such as bones, some of the organs, and signs of disease and injury.

Ø ** __ Positron Emission Computed Tomography(PET) __ ** - It is the most frequently used molecular imaging procedures.

- Molecular imaging offers unique sights into the human body that allows Doctors to make patient care more personal. In terms of diagnosis, molecular imaging is able to: ü Provide information that is unavailable with other imaging technologies that would require more invasive procedures such as a biopsy or surgery. ü Identify disease in early stages and determine the exact location of tumors, often before symptoms occur or abnormalities can be detected with other tests. - In addition to increasing our understanding of the underlying causes of disease, PET is improving the way disease is detected and treated. - It helps discover early stages of cancer, heart conditions, and brain disorders. - The procedure begins with an intravenous (IV) injection of a radiotracer, such as FDG, which usually takes between 30 and 60 minutes to distribute throughout the body. The patient is then placed in the PET scanner where special detectors are used to create a three dimensional image of the FDG distribution.

    ** Ø __ Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) __** -SPECT scans let doctors analyze the function of internal organs. -It is a type of nuclear imaging test, which means it uses a radioactive substance and a special camera to create 3-D pictures. -SPECT can show how blood flows from the heart, or what areas are the brain are more or less active.

Ø ** __ Cardiovascular Imaging __ ** -Cardiovascular imaging allows doctors to see inside the body. These images can show the structure of the heart in great detail, and show how the blood flows through the body. - The procedures include: ü Ultrasounds ü Magnetic Field ü Contrast Agent ü Advanced Computer Software

Ø ** __ Bone Scanning __ ** -A bone scan can often find a problem, days, to months earlier than a regular X-ray test.

-For a bone scan, a radioactive substance is injected into a vein in the arm. This substance, called a tracer, travels through the bloodstream and into the bones. This could take several hours. -A special camera takes pictures of the tracer in your bones. Areas that absorb little or no amount of tracer appear as dark or "cold" spots. This could show a lack of blood supply to the bone or certain types of cancer. -Areas of fast bone growth or repair absorb more tracer and show up as bright or "hot" spots in the pictures. Hot spots may point to problems such as arthritis, a tumor, a fracture, or an infection. - Bone scanning can help find broken bones, types of cancer, and diseases.

Ø ** __ Radiation Therapy __ ** - Radiation therapy is the use of radiation to treat cancer and other medical problems. - Radiation therapy uses high-energy radiation to shrink tumors and kill cancer cells. X-rays, gamma rays, and charged particles are types of radiation used for cancer treatment.

-The radiation may be delivered by a machine outside the body or it may come from radioactive material placed in the body near cancer cells through an IV. -Systemic radiation therapy uses radioactive substances, such as radioactive iodine, that travel in the blood to kill cancer cells.

-Radiation therapy kills cancer cells by damaging their DNA. Radiation therapy can either damage DNA directly or create charged particles within the cells that can in turn damage the DNA. ** __ Sources: __ ** - []  - [] - [] - [|http://www.webmd.com]