A bone scan that finds a stress fracture an X-ray missed. A PET scan that shows whether a cancer has spread or stayed local. A thyroid uptake study that tells the endocrinologist exactly how overactive the gland is. Nuclear medicine occupies a unique space in diagnostics. It does not just show structure. It shows function. It tracks how organs and tissues are actually behaving at a cellular level. At Manipal Hospital Millers Road, the Nuclear Medicine Department uses small amounts of radioactive tracers to answer questions that other imaging modalities cannot. As a trusted nuclear medicine hospital in Millers Road, Bangalore, we provide studies that influence decisions across oncology, cardiology, endocrinology, and orthopaedics.
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Why Manipal Hospitals?
Nuclear medicine studies depend on two things: the quality of the radiopharmaceutical and the skill of the person reading the images. A PET scan is only as good as the FDG tracer injected into the patient. A bone scan is only as reliable as the gamma camera that detects it. Our nuclear scan center in Millers Road, Bangalore, prepares radiopharmaceuticals on site under stringent quality control. Doses are calibrated precisely to the patient's weight and the specific study being performed. The gamma cameras are calibrated daily against known standards. When the images come up on the screen, the nuclear medicine physician does not report them in isolation. They pull up the patient's CT or MRI alongside, correlating functional hot spots with anatomical structures. A rib fracture lights up differently from a metastasis. A post-surgical inflammatory change looks different from a residual tumour. These distinctions matter, and they take experience to make. The reliability patients and referring doctors count on is supported by:
- Nuclear medicine physicians with dedicated training in molecular imaging who understand tracer kinetics, biodistribution patterns, and the physiological variants that can mimic disease.
- On-site radiopharmacy where technetium-based tracers are prepared fresh each morning and fluorine-based PET tracers arrive on schedule with documented purity levels.
- Gamma cameras with SPECT capability that rotate around the patient, acquiring tomographic data rather than just planar images, which improves lesion detection and anatomical localisation.
- PET-CT fusion technology that overlays metabolic information onto a CT scan acquired in the same session, pinpointing exactly where abnormal uptake is located.
- Radiation safety protocols that keep patient exposure as low as diagnostically achievable, with dose calculation and documentation for every study.
- Structured reporting that describes the pattern, intensity, and distribution of tracer uptake, giving the referring clinician a differential diagnosis rather than just a description of findings.
Nuclear Medicine Department
The Nuclear Medicine Department at Manipal Hospital Millers Road provides diagnostic and therapeutic nuclear medicine services. We perform bone scans, myocardial perfusion studies, thyroid uptake and scan, renal scintigraphy, hepatobiliary imaging, lung ventilation-perfusion scans, and whole-body PET-CT for oncology. Our therapeutic services include radioiodine therapy for hyperthyroidism and thyroid cancer and radionuclide therapy for bone pain from metastases. When specialists need a nuclear medicine hospital in Millers Road, Bangalore, for accurate molecular imaging, they refer patients here.
Services Offered
The Nuclear Medicine Department offers a range of molecular imaging and therapeutic procedures, each selected to answer a specific clinical question:
- Whole-body FDG PET-CT for cancer staging, restaging, and treatment response assessment
- Technetium bone scan for detection of skeletal metastases, occult fractures, and osteomyelitis
- Myocardial perfusion imaging with pharmacological or exercise stress to evaluate coronary artery disease and myocardial viability
- Thyroid scintigraphy with technetium pertechnetate for characterising thyroid nodules and evaluating hyperthyroidism
- Renal dynamic scan with diuretic challenge to differentiate obstructive from non-obstructive dilatation of the collecting system
- Ventilation-perfusion lung scan for suspected pulmonary embolism in patients who cannot receive contrast
- Radioiodine therapy with I-131 for Graves' disease, toxic multinodular goitre, and differentiated thyroid cancer
- Samarium or strontium therapy for painful bone metastases that have not responded to conventional analgesia
Facilities and Services
Our standing as a reliable nuclear scan center in Millers Road, Bangalore, is built on technologists who follow strict radiopharmacy protocols and physicians who interpret functional images in the clinical context. At Manipal Hospital, Millers Road, the nuclear medicine setup is designed around radiation safety, image quality, and patient throughput:
- Dual-head gamma camera with SPECT acquisition for tomographic bone, cardiac, and brain imaging
- PET-CT scanner with time-of-flight technology for high-resolution metabolic imaging with reduced scan times
- Radiopharmacy hot lab with laminar flow isolators for aseptic preparation of technetium-labelled compounds
- Dose calibrator for verifying the activity of each patient dose before injection
- Thyroid uptake probe for quantitative measurement of radioiodine uptake in the gland
- Dedicated waiting area for injected patients with separate toilet facilities to contain radioactive waste
- Isolation room for patients undergoing high-dose radioiodine therapy with lead shielding and effluent storage
- PACS integration that sends nuclear medicine images directly to the referring consultant's workstation
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Frequently Asked Questions
The radiation dose from most diagnostic nuclear medicine studies is comparable to or slightly higher than a CT scan. The tracer decays and is excreted from the body within hours to days. The risk from a single appropriately indicated study is small and is weighed against the benefit of the diagnostic information it provides. Therapeutic doses are higher but are used to treat disease that carries a much greater risk if left untreated.
You will need to fast for at least six hours before the scan because elevated blood sugar competes with the FDG tracer and reduces image quality. Diabetic patients receive specific instructions about medication timing. You should avoid strenuous exercise for twenty-four hours prior, as muscle uptake can confuse the interpretation.
There is a waiting period, usually one to three hours depending on the study, during which the tracer distributes through the body and concentrates in target tissues. You will be asked to rest quietly, drink water, and remain still during this uptake phase. Movement or talking can increase muscle uptake and degrade image quality.
For diagnostic scans, the residual radiation in your body is low, and you can resume normal contact. You may be advised to avoid close, prolonged contact with infants and pregnant women for the rest of the day. For therapeutic doses, especially radioiodine therapy, strict isolation and contact restrictions apply for several days.
Routine nuclear medicine reports are typically available within twenty-four hours. PET-CT reports, which require detailed correlation with previous imaging, may take slightly longer. Urgent findings are communicated directly to the referring clinician on the same day.