Nuclear medicine is a
medical specialty involving the application of
radioactive substances in the diagnosis and treatment of
disease. Nuclear medicine scans are usually conducted by
nuclear medicine technologists or radiographers. Nuclear medicine, in a sense, is "
radiology done inside out" or "endoradiology" because it records radiation emitting from within the body rather than
radiation that is generated by external sources like
X-rays. In addition, nuclear medicine scans differ from radiology as the emphasis is not on imaging anatomy but the function and for such reason, it is called a physiological imaging modality. Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography or SPECT and Positron Emission Tomography or PET scans are the two most common imaging modalities in nuclear medicine.