Mallinckrodt Institute's divisions of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine provide clinical radiology services for the thousands of patients who come to Washington University Medical Center each year.
Diagnostic Radiology
The physicians in diagnostic radiology can diagnose ailments as routine as a simple fracture and as life threatening as a malignant tumor.
Some physicians are known as general radiologists because they have the necessary skills to interpret radiology examinations of most areas of the body. Others are called specialists; these radiologists have additional training to detect problems in specific areas of the anatomy. For example, a neuroradiologist is specifically trained in the areas of the brain, head and neck, and spine.
The Division of Diagnostic Radiology is subdivided into sections.
Shown above are David Rubin, MD, chief of the musculoskeletal radiology section, and (right) Vamsi Narra, MD, chief of radiology at Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital and cochief of body magnetic resonance imaging.
Nuclear Medicine/Nuclear Radiology
Nuclear medicine's most important application is in the diagnosis of disease. Examinations performed in this area of radiology use radioactive substances that are injected or swallowed and taken up by the body's tissues and organs. Special equipment used in nuclear medicine can detect the small doses of radiation emitted by the substances and then provide an image or map of where the radiation is in the body. Those images show the function of each tissue or organ and specifically tell the nuclear physicians which tissue or organ is not functioning properly.
Mallinckrodt Institute's Division of Nuclear Medicine was the first in the United States to combine a minicomputer with a special camera that measures units of magnetic intensity called a gamma. This interfacing of equipment improved the accuracy and efficiency of nuclear medicine procedures.
