Is Nuclear Medicine safe?
Yes. Nuclear medicine has been used on children and babies for more than 40 years with no known adverse effects from the low doses employed. Your child will be exposed to very small amounts of radiation that are within the range of doses received during routine diagnostic radiographic procedures. At Children’s Hospital Boston, we are committed to ensuring your child receives the smallest radiation dose needed to obtain the desired result.
Nuclear medicine procedures are among the safest diagnostic imaging exams available. A patient receives only an extremely small amount of radiopharmaceutical, just enough to provide sufficient diagnostic information. In fact, the amount of radiation from a nuclear medicine procedure is comparable to, or often times less than, that of a diagnostic x-ray.
