Conventional methods of diagnosis using nuclear scan and recent progress with radionuclide transaxial tomography

Radionuclide brain imaging, a simple, noninvasive test for evaluating patients with suspected cerebral pathology, has a high degree of accuracy when compared with more complex neuroradiologic procedures such as angiography and pneumoencephalography. The detection of brain tumors with use of radionuclide scans is related to the tumor cell type and their location in the brain. Transmission computed cranial tomography (CCT) offers another simple procedure for evaluating cerebral pathology. Even though CCT gives more anatomic detail than the radionuclide study, the two procedures are often complementary. Radionuclide transaxial tomography appears promising as a means of evaluating cerebral metabolism and metabolic changes associated with cerebral pathology.