Greetings from the Division of Nuclear Medicine! We are a vibrant, innovative section within the Department of Radiology whose mission is to provide state-of-the-art diagnostic and therapeutic patient studies, further clinical and basic science research, and serve as an important educational resource both within the University and community at large.

Our general nuclear faculty includes Clinical Director Dr. Daniel Appelbaum and Dr. Yonglin Pu who are involved in all aspects of general nuclear medicine, cardiac nuclear imaging, and PET. The cardiac nuclear team also includes Dr. Ravi Garg, Dr. Park Ward, and nuclear cardiac director Dr. Kim Williams. Our physicist is Dr. Bill O’Brien Penney.

The Section is proud to offer the full spectrum of nuclear exams, from the standard bone and thyroid imaging to the harder to find, such as red cell mass calculations and multiple radioimmunotherapies. We also offer a wide variety of pediatric studies which are supervised by a pediatric-trained staff and specialize in pediatric renal imaging. We are efficiently busy, performing15 to 20 general and 15 to 20 cardiac studies per day.

Our newest addition is the PET/CT Imaging Center, which was the first permanent such site in the Chicagoland area. Here we offer the latest in PET and PET/CT imaging and are still one of the few facilities in the region to offer a combined diagnostic contrast-enhanced helical CT and PET exam in a single patient visit. Our facility performs whole body oncologic and neurologic exams, 4-6 per day, with volume growing monthly. We will be continuing our leadership in PET with the introduction in the near future of the first area cardiac PET/CT protocols.

Research has historically been a strong area of the Section and recent addition Dr. Pu brings with him an additional wealth of research expertise. Current areas of interest include oncologic PET. One project we have started involves optimal PET imaging delay for increased detection of colorectal hepatic metastases. We are also involved in several grants including detecting early “metabolic flare” by PET in patients undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer. We particularly enjoy the collaboration with other University Departments such as our work with Urology evaluating with SPECT the preservation of renal function following warm ischemia and nephron-sparing surgery. We look forward to future such collaborations.

In summary, the Section of Nuclear Medicine continues to be a leader in its clinical, educational, and research endeavors, and is advancing as rapidly as the science of molecular imaging as a whole.

Faculty:

Daniel E. Appelbaum, M.D.
Assistant Professor of Radiology
Clinical Director of Nuclear Medicine

Yonglin Pu, M.D., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Clinical Radiology