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Nuclear Medicine

Nuclear Medicine

Nuclear medicine is a part of medicine that use radioactive isotopes for the diagnosis, treatment and research of the diseases and functional disorders in the body. The aim of nuclear medicine teaching is that students get basic information on the application of radioactive nuclides and radiopharmaceuticals for the diagnostics, therapy and medical investigations. It nuclear medicine, the minimal amounts of radioactive isotopes are introduced into the body, usually intravenously, thus enabling the monitoring of physiological processes at molecular level, as well as the detection of pathological changes. Nuclear medicine is a multidisciplinary science, which includes integral knowledge from medicine, physics, radiochemistry, pharmacy and bioengineering.

The knowledge acquired during nuclear medicine studies, enables the doctor of medicine to: 
(A) adopt basic clinical indications for the application of nuclear medicine diagnostics in the diagnosis of the disease and monitoring the effectiveness of therapy
(B) correctly interprets the nuclear medicine finding, and refers the patient to appropriate treatment
(C) affirm the basics of nuclear medicine therapeutic procedures.

Nuclear medicine teaching comprises 30 school lessons: 15 lectures (L) and 15 practicals (P), during the winter semester of the fifth year of medical studies.

Professors:

1) Professor dr Dragana Šobić-Šaranović    

2) Professor dr Vera Artiko 

3) Professor dr Slobodanka Beatović 

 

Associate:

1) Assistant professor dr Strahinja Odalović

2) Teaching assistant dr Isidora Grozdić Milojević

3) Teaching assistant dr Milica Stojiljković

 

Course director:

Professor dr Slobodanka Beatović

 

TEACHING PLAN

The nuclear medicine course comprises 30 school lessons: 15 lectures and 15 practical exercises. Practicals are organized in two separate groups, and therefore the overall number of practicals is 45. Attending of practical exercises is obligatory; the lectures are not obligatory, but the attendance enables student to gain additional points for activity during the course.

It is necessary that students have their nuclear medicine card (document obtained from administrative stuff) with them during lectures, practicals, colloquium and final exam in nuclear medicine. All attended lectures, practicals, as well as the colloquium and final exam results, will be registered in this student's document.

 

THEORETICAL TEACHING (15 scholl hours of lectures)

  1. Introduction to nuclear medicine. Basic principles of nuclear medicine.  Production of radioactivity. Radiopharmaceutical chemistry. Radiation safety. (1 lesson)

  2. Instrumentation in nuclear medicine. Radiation detector systems. Imaging systems (Scintillation camera and SPECT). Static and dynamic acquisition and data processing. (1 lesson)

  3. Positron emission tomography (PET).  Physics and chemistry of PET imaging. PET instrumentation and methodology. Hybrid imaging systems. (1 lesson)

  4. Molecular investigations in nuclear medicine.  Application of radio-labeled imaging agents in the investigations of the cell processes. (1 lesson)

  5. Nuclear medicine in neurology. Morphological, hemodynamic, metabolic and functional investigations of the central nervous system. (1 lesson)

  6. Nuclear medicine in cardiology. Hemodynamic, functional and morphological investigations of the heart. PET/CT in the investigation of perfusion and metabolism in the heart (1 lesson)

  7. Lung investigations in nuclear medicine. Perfusion and ventilation lung studies. PET/CT in the investigation of lung and pleura (1 lesson)

  8. Nuclear medicine in nephrourology.  Urodynamic, hemodynamic, functional and morphological investigations of urinary system. PET in urological oncology. PET in nephrology (1 lesson)

  9. Nuclear medicine in the investigations of the musculoskeletal system.  Functional and morphological investigations of the bones and joints. PET in the management of bone tumors. (1 lesson)

  10. Pediatric Nuclear Medicine. Nuclear medicine procedures in children. Common indications and considerations.Hybrid imaging in children. (1 lesson)

  11. Nuclear medicine in hematology. Functional and morphological investigations in hematology. PET in the diagnosis of lympho-proliferative  and myelo-proliferative diseases. (1 lesson)

  12. Nuclear medicine in endocrinology.  Functional and morphological investigations of endocrine system. Pet in endocrinology. (1 lesson)

  13. Nuclear medicine in gastroenterohepatology. Functional and morphological investigations of liver, spleen and digestive system. (1 lesson)

  14. Nuclear medicine in infections and inflammations. Specific radiopharmaceuticals and mechanisms of their accumulation in the inflammatory and infective lesions. (1 lesson)

  15. Nuclear medicine in oncology. Radionuclide therapy.  Mechanism of radiopharmaceutical accumulation in the tumor tissue. Principles of teranostics. (1 lesson)

 

PRACTICAL TEACHING (15 practicals for three groups of students, overall 45 school hours of practicals):

  1. Instrumentation. Acquainting with the nuclear medicine instrumentation. (1 lesson)

  2. Static, dynamic and tomography investigations in nuclear medicine. Acquainting with the basis of the acquisition and processing of the static, dynamic and tomography studies. (1 lesson)

  3. Procedures for PET Studies. Acquainting with the patient preparation and scanning considerations for PET. (1 lesson)

  4. Molecular imaging in nuclear medicine. Application of PET and SPECT in the imaging of cell processes. (1 lesson)

  5. PET and SPECT methods in the brain investigation. Demonstration of brain PET and SPECT scans. (1 lesson)

  6. Perfusion myocardial scintigraphy and radionuclide ventriculography. PET/CT in the investigation of perfusion and metabolism in the heart. Demonstration of typical cases. (1 lesson)

  7. Perfusion and ventilation lung scintigraphy.  PET/CT in lung carcinoma. Demonstration of typical cases. (1 lesson)

  8. Static and dynamic kidney scintigraphy.  PET in uro-oncology. Hybrid imaging of prostate carcinoma. Demonstration of the characteristic findings. (1 lesson)

  9. Bone scintigraphy. PET in malignant and benign bone diseases. Demonstration of characteristic cases. (1 lesson)

  10. Pediatric nuclear medicine procedures. Demonstration of the typical findings. (1 lesson)

  11. Functional and scintigraphic investigations in hematology. Demonstration of the results of functional and scintigraphic investigations in hematology. PET of lymphoma. (1 lesson)

  12. Functional and scintigraphic investigations of the thyroid, parathyroid, suprarenal glands and neuroendocrine tumors. Demonstration of the characteristic scintigrams of the thyroid, parathyroid, suprarenal glands and GEP NET. (1 lesson)

  13. Scintigraphic methods in the gastroenterology, liver and spleen  investigation.   PET of gastrointestinal tumors. Demonstration of the characteristic cases. (1 lesson)

  14. Investigations of infection and inflammation. Fever of unknown origin. Demonstration of results. (1 lesson)

  15. Application of radionuclide therapeutic agents. Demonstration of clinical cases. (1 lesson).

Clinical PET/CT Atlas: A Casebook of Imaging in Oncology

It can be downloaded from: 
https://1drv.ms/b/c/e5b43b963dd21435/Ecg2gfZTx3tHnqP43EkkzOMB8C2ia75f5_6nUT-NpuYm8A 

Other material:

All lectures were recorded by the lecturers (professors of nuclear medicine) and are going to be placed on the Students' On-line Study Platform (Moodle), the day after the lecture is actually held. All practical excersises with typical clinical cases were prepared in the form of PDF presentations, and will be placed on Moodle platform one day after each practical.

The students can repeatedly use these recorded lectures and practicals for studing, during the academic year.

 

ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION OF STUDENTS

 

The final grade in Nuclear Medicine is a result of students’ engagement during practical exercises and lectures, the points collected on the colloquium, and the success on the final exam.
 

The activity during practical exercises and lectures brings 10 points (0,4 points for each practical and 0,26 points for each lecture).
 

The Colloquium in Nuclear Medicine consists of the test with 16 questions. Each question carries 1,25 points, and the maximum of points that can be obtained at the colloquium is 20.
 

The final exam is in the form of MCQ test and consists of 35 questions. Each correct answer brings 2 points, thus, the maximum number of points for all correct answers is 70.

Research topics

Course director: Slobodanka Beatović MD, PhD, Nuclear Medicine Specialist, Professor of Nuclear Medicine
University Clinical Center of Serbia, Center for Nuclear Medicine with Positron Emission Tomography

slobodanka.beatovic@med.bg.ac.rs
boba.beatovic@gmail.com
Mobile phone: +38166 8300508 
WhatsApp, Viber: +38163 7019989