Nuclear medicine in India.

The regular supply of radiopharmaceuticals and radioimmunoassay kits from BARC has been an important factor in the deveIopment of nuclear medicine in India. However, a major stumbling block has been the non-avai labi l i ty of sui table instrumentat ion systems (especial ly the computer-assisted gamma camera) at an affordable price. Two recent developments, viz., the creation of the Board bf Radioisotope Technology by the Department of Atomic Energy, and the efforts of Electronic Corporation of India Ltd. to design indigenously a gamma camera with a computer attachment, hold promise for the future healthy and rapid growth of nuclear medicine in the country. Training in nuclear medicine at the post-graduate level is gradually picking up. Nuclear medicine is essentially applied physiology and biochemistry, and provides an orientation,different from those of the anatomist and physiologist. The gamma camera, SPECT and PET +nable the study of dynamic metabolic function in health and disease, adding the dimension of functional resolution to spatial and temporal resolutions. Newer developments in tagged monoclonal ant ibodies hold promise for a better understanding of infectious and inflammatory diseases which are a burden in the developing countries.