How are gamma rays used in hospitals?
Another use of gamma rays is to do functional imaging. A small amount of radioactivity is administered usually through intra-veinous injection. The radioactive chemical is chosen so that e.g. it is preferentially uptaken by cancer cells. Then, a special device named a gamma-camera detects the radioactivity stemming from the body, creates images and allows the physician to locate the cancer cells. There are dozens of uses of gamma-rays for diagnostic imaging: finding tumors, but also finding stenosis (a abnormal narrowing of a blood vessel), haemmorage, pulmonary embolism, abnormal thyroid activity, dead cardiac cells after a heart attack, infection (by marking white blood cells with radioactive chemical)…
