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Greetings from
the Southwestern Chapter of the Society of Nuclear Medicine!
Our Mission
The Southwestern Chapter was founded in 1956 to promote
the science, technology and practical application of nuclear
medicine. The Chapter is committed to improving patient care
by maintaining and advancing the highest possible standards
of education, research and clinical use of nuclear medicine. |
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Chapter Profile
We are a regional chapter of the Society
of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging. Our Chapter membership consists of
over 1,000 physicians, scientists, technologists, pharmacists,
veterinarians, and commercial vendors who generally reside
in the states of Arkansas, Louisiana, New
Mexico, Oklahoma,
and Texas. We sponsor two educational opportunities
each year:
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A large meeting
in the Spring for all nuclear medicine professionals
- A smaller meeting
in the Fall for technologists who are unable to travel to
our Spring meeting
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What
is Nuclear Medicine?
Nuclear Medicine is a specialty of medicine that uses safe
levels of radioactive chemicals
either to image and/or measure a given organ or group of organs
or to treat certain diseases (like overactive thyroids or cancer).
Some typical examples of our work would be a bone, heart, and
PET scans. |
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What is Molecular Imaging?
Molecular imaging is a new area of medical imaging that
is based upon making images of the naturally occuring molecules
and atoms in the body, rather than introducing a foreign substance
such as a "dye" or a tracer. While these older means
of imaging are certainly useful (such as a CT or "CAT"
scan), or even an older type nuclear medicine image, these
new imaging techniques allow us to:
- Image a person's
biochemistry directly, without any disturbance to the biological
system.
- Identify and
measure disease states before changes occur that are visible
to the eye.
- Discover rapidly—sometimes
in as little as one day—if treatment for, say, a cancer,
is working (older techniques take weeks to months).
- See exactly
where drugs go in the body, how much gets there, and what
happens after they do.
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