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Patients need to know that nuclear medicine procedures can trigger radiation alarms

12-06-2007 · EurekAlert!

Twenty million nuclear medicine procedures that detect and evaluate heart disease, brain disorders and cancer -- and that use radiopharmaceuticals to treat overactive thyroids and some cancers -- are performed each year. While health care providers in many facilities do provide patients with adequate information about nuclear medicine procedures, there's room for improvement, says a study supported by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality that appears in the December Journal of Nuclear Medicine.

Keywords: patients, know, nuclear, medicine, procedures, trigger, radiation, alarms, patient, procedure, alarm

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