Nuclear medicine is the bridge between a particular clinical problem and
a relevant test using radionuclides. It began as a minor technical tool
used in a few branches of medicine, notably endocrinology and
nephrology. However, throughout the world it has now become established
as a clinical discipline in its own right, with specific training
programmes, special skills and a particular approach to patient
management. Although the practising nuclear medicine physician must
necessarily learn a great deal of basic science and technology, a sound
medical training and a clinical approach to the subject remains of
fundamental importance. It is for this reason that we have attempted in
this book to approach the subject from a clinical standpoint, including
where necessary relevant physiological material. There exist many
excellent texts which cover the basic science and technology of nuclear
medicine. We have, therefore, severely limited our coverage of these
aspects of the subject to matters which we felt to be essential,
particularly those which have been less well covered in other texts -
for example, the contents of Chapter 21 on Quantitation by Royal and
McNeil. Similarly, we have included at the end of some chapters
descriptions of particular techniques where we and the authors felt that
it would be helpful. In order to emphasize the clinical approach of this
book we have inverted the traditional sequence of material in chapters,
presenting the clinical problems first in each instance.
