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Nuclear Medicine Has Finger on Pulse of Deborah
Nuclear medicine is an integral part of patient care and is used in the diagnosis, management, treatment and prevention of serious diseases in virtually every hospital across the United States. In fact, more than 20 million men, women and children undergo noninvasive nuclear medicine procedures annually. Faced with such imposing numbers, it is easy to see the importance of Deborah Heart and Lung Center’s Section of Nuclear Medicine, a unique department that looks at both the physiology and the anatomy of the body in establishing diagnosis and treatment of disease.
“Nuclear medicine procedures are essential in many medical specialties, from pediatrics to cardiology to respiratory care; they are useful for detecting tumors, aneurysms, irregular or inadequate blood flow to various tissues, and blood cell disorders and inadequate functioning of organs, such as thyroid and pulmonary function deficiencies,” stated Frank Lumia, MD, Director, Section Nuclear Medicine at Deborah. “Essentially, nuclear medicine procedures are a way for us to gather medical information that would otherwise be unavailable, require surgery, or necessitate more expensive diagnostic testing.”
Operating as a full service nuclear medicine department, with seven Nuclear Medicine Technicians, licensed through New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection, three EKG stress technicians and two patient care technicians, the Section of Nuclear Medicine at Deborah performs many of the same tests conducted at hospitals throughout the country. With four dual head Siemens cameras, a single head Siemens camera and a Sim-400 multi-crystal camera, as well as three treadmills at their disposal, Nuclear Medicine staff can readily perform many non-cardiac studies, including lung scans (both routine V/Q and quantitative lung scans), bone scans and renal scans (both for function or with Captopril to look for renal artery stenosis), as well as thyroid scans, liver, spleen and GI bleeds.
However, with roughly 75 percent of Department volume pertaining to cardiac issues, the Section of Nuclear Medicine maintains an emphasis on the heart. That means routinely performing both exercise stress studies, using a treadmill, and pharmacologic stress studies, using Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) with gated images for ejection fraction, wall motion, and wall thickening. The results of these tests are accurate about 90 percent of the time and are relied on heavily by doctors to measure how well the heart muscle is supplied with blood and oxygen.
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“Acting as a component of one of the Region’s most respected cardiac care centers, the Section of Nuclear Medicine is committed to doing its part to provide Deborah’s patients – cardiac, respiratory and vascular – with the best possible care available,” said Dr. Lumia. “That was the goal of this institution at its inception, and continues to be the goal of every employee working here today.”
With more than 3,000 thousand patients seen annually by the Section of Nuclear Medicine (both cardiac and non-cardiac), it would seem difficult to achieve that goal, but even with such high patient volume, the importance of each test is not lost on Department staff. As common practice, all studies are read, typed and reviewed within 24 hours, with reports sent to requesting physicians via fax and mail the next working day.
“Advancements in technology have certainly assisted our Department, not only in the quality of testing available, but also in the speed with which results are obtained,” stated Dr. Lumia. “The importance of these results, and what they can mean for our patients, necessitates prompt attention on our end. It is imperative that we uphold this level of care, not only for ourselves, but for the patients of Deborah who have come to expect it.”™
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