[Fundamental bases of nuclear cardiology]

Nuclear cardiology the clinical speciality that deals with the acquisition of biochemical and functional data through the external detection of electromagnetic radiations emitted by internally administered radiotracers. The most important concepts in the development of this new technology are reviewed: the radiotracers, the nuclear instrumentation, and the systems for data processing and analysis. It is included a comparison between the radiation doses delivered by nuclear cardiology studies and by diagnostic x-ray procedures, common in cardiology. It is concluded with a vision to the near future: radioimmunoscintigraphy, use of biochemical cell receptors, metabolic studies by positrom emmision tomography, and the revolutionary technology of tomography by nuclear magnetic resonance.