Division Chief
Walter E Drane, MD, FACR
Professor & Chief, Nuclear Medicine
Director, Medical Plaza Radiology
Director, Advanced GI Imaging
Education
MD: Emory University; Atlanta, GA
Training
Fellowship: University of Washington; Seattle, WA
Residency: Henry Ford Hospital; Detroit, MI
Faculty
Laura Magnelli, MD
Assistant Professor, Abdominal Imaging
Education
MD: Drexel University College of Medicine; Philadelphia, PA
Training
Fellowship: University of Florida; Gainesville, FL
Residency: University of Florida; Gainesville, FL
Internship: University of Pittsburgh Medical Center; Pittsburgh, PA
Overview
Nuclear Medicine uses many different radioactive tracers to diagnosis, stage, and track disease, as well as to treat certain malignancies, like thyroid cancer. It’s power is its quantitative and dynamic tracking of physiology (beyond the typical anatomy imaged by standard radiology techniques). It involves all organ systems, with niche roles in brain imaging (strokes, dementias, seizures), lung imaging, bone imaging, renal imaging, GI tract and biliary imaging. There are unique tracers to track infection and inflammation in the body, and there is a major role for PET-CT in oncologic practice, for both the early detection and monitoring of many malignancies, long before anatomic changes occur.
Modalities
The Medical Plaza Imaging Department is the epicenter of our PET-CT practice, with a very advanced mCT flow scanner that allows rapid throughput and tailoring of exams depending on the type of malignancy. The majority of the general NM practice is centered in the North Tower hospital with standard NM cameras and SPECT-CT. Mobile NM is available using our ERGOS system, which allows bedside imaging for a number of different NM procedures, critically important in a hospital system with 3 separate tower (not all possessing fixed NM systems).