Nuclear medicine, under the direction of Munir Ghesani, MD, at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, uses the latest advances in nuclear imaging to diagnose and treat disease. In this approach, radioactive tracers are used to visualize activity at the molecular level. A trace amount of radioactive material—a radiopharmaceutical—is injected, swallowed, or inhaled prior to the procedure, and the body area of concern is imaged using a camera that captures radioactive signals. A computer reconstructs the signals into images that assist in diagnosis and treatment.
Common uses of nuclear medicine include perfusion studies such as myocardial perfusion imaging, which is the most accurate noninvasive test to diagnose obstructive coronary artery disease as well as coronary microvascular dysfunction. Nuclear medicine has a wide range of indications, including assessing the function of organs, detecting cancer, identifying rejection of a transplant, and more.
In addition, Mount Sinai is on the forefront of theranostics. Theranostics combines the unique advantages of diagnostic Positron Emission Tomography (PET/CT) scans with a matching therapeutic. These therapeutics are in a class called radioligand therapy. Currently all FDA approved PET/CT scan agents and both FDA approved therapeutics, one for neuroendocrine tumors and the other for prostate cancer are offered by our specially trained staff members in the Mount Sinai Health System. Mount Sinai also participates in several clinical trials of future cancer agents in this class.
Nuclear medicine, under the direction of Munir Ghesani, MD, at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, uses the latest advances in nuclear imaging to diagnose and treat disease. In this approach, radioactive tracers are used to visualize activity at the molecular level. A trace amount of radioactive material—a radiopharmaceutical—is injected, swallowed, or inhaled prior to the procedure, and the body area of concern is imaged using a camera that captures radioactive signals. A computer reconstructs the signals into images that assist in diagnosis and treatment.
Common uses of nuclear medicine include perfusion studies such as myocardial perfusion imaging, which is the most accurate noninvasive test to diagnose obstructive coronary artery disease as well as coronary microvascular dysfunction. Nuclear medicine has a wide range of indications, including assessing the function of organs, detecting cancer, identifying rejection of a transplant, and more.
In addition, Mount Sinai is on the forefront of Theranostics. Theranostics combines the unique advantages of diagnostic Positron Emission Tomography (PET/CT) scans with a matching therapeutic. These therapeutics are in a class called radioligand therapy. Currently all FDA approved PET/CT scan agents and both FDA approved therapeutics, one for Neuroendocrine tumors and the other for Prostate cancer are offered by our specially trained staff members in Mount Sinai Health System. Mount Sinai also participates in several clinical trials of future cancer agents in this class.
This large study of patients undergoing PET MPI demonstrated that although reduced MBFR was more prevalent in women compared with men, there were no sex-specific differences in the prognostic value of reduced MBFR.
Use of anatomic testing such as coronary artery calcium scoring (CACS) of 0 to avoid myocardial perfusion imaging in symptomatic patients could lead to missing microvascular dysfunction in 4 out of 10 patients, a finding associated with a high mortality risk.
