Nuclear medicine
What we do
Nuclear medicine is a safe and painless way of taking pictures of the inside of your body. These images can be used to find problems in the very early stages of a disease, sometimes before they show up on other tests.
It uses small amounts of radioactive material as a ‘tracer’ to diagnose a condition. We inject the material into one of your veins. The radiation it gives out is picked up by a SPECT-CT or PET-CT scanner, a special device which converts the information into an image that can show the presence, size and shape of abnormalities in various organs in your body. We also use this technique to treat certain conditions.
We keep the radiation doses as low as possible, especially when scanning children.
In particular, our service diagnoses and treats:
- conditions that affect the white blood cells (lymphoma)
- liver, pancreatic and gall bladder (hepatobiliary) problems
- thyroid and adrenal (endocrine) disorders
- conditions that affect your endocrine and nervous system (neuroendocrine)
- loose or infected prostheses (orthopaedics)
- brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s (dementia) and Parkinson’s (movement disorders)
Our therapy service includes:
- radioiodine therapies for overactive thyroids and thyroid cancer
- therapies for neuroendocrine tumours (MIBG and lutetium)
- therapies for liver cancer (SIRT)
We also provide a bone density scan (DEXA scan) service for diagnosing osteoporosis.
Preparing for your appointment
Important: before your scan you must tell us if you are pregnant or breastfeeding.
Please read your appointment letter carefully before you appointment. It gives you details of the test you are going to have and tells you whether you need to follow any special instructions.
You can usually eat and drink as normal beforehand, but there are restrictions with certain scans (for example, PET-CT scans), so please check your letter carefully.
You can bring a friend or relative with you, but where possible do not bring young children.
Location
Lower ground floor, Golden Jubilee Wing, King’s College Hospital, Denmark Hill, London, SE5 9RS
Contact Details
- Main Reception: 020 3299 3153
- PET-CT Appointment Booking: 020 3299 2022
- PET-CT Control Room: 020 3299 2023
- Referrals: [email protected]
Conditions we treat
We offer a comprehensive range of PET-CT scans using F18-FDG, F18-Choline and Ga68-PSMA for prostate, F18-amyloid imaging agent for the brain and Ga68-Dotatate for certain types of cancer, mainly neuroendocrine tumours. These may be combined with a diagnostic CT.
Primary referrers
We have an open referral practice for primary care for certain diagnostic nuclear medicine investigations including DEXA, bone scans and kidney assessments.
- For assessment of bone mineral density, please request a DEXA scan.
- For radionuclide imaging of bone function and pathology, please request a bone scan.
- We prefer referrals for thyroid assessment and thyrotoxicosis treatment to be made through the endocrine team to ensure integrated clinical care.
Tertiary referrers
Our tertiary practice specialises in the correlative functional imaging of endocrine malignancy, neurological disorders, complex hepatobiliary examinations and specialised bone imaging.
We offer a full range of unsealed source therapy for benign and malignant disease including:
- I-131 treatment of thyrotoxicosis and thyroid cancer
- treatment of metastatic neuroendocrine tumours (Lutetium-DOTATATE and MIBG)
- selective internal radiation therapy (SIRT) of primary and secondary liver tumours.
Booking a patient at King’s
Routine Referrals
PET-CT scan referrals
Complete the PET-CT referral form below and email it to [email protected].
Nuclear medicine imaging referrals including bone densitometry (DXA)
Complete the Nuclear medicine referral form below and email it to [email protected].
Emergency Referrals
For emergency referrals, contact Nuclear Medicine reception staff on 020 3299 3153, who will help you contact the most appropriate member of staff.
Other Queries
Referral forms
| Title | File Size | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Nuclear Medicine Referral Form | 364 KB | |
| PET-CT referral form | 250 KB |
Key Clinical Staff
| Name | Role |
|---|---|
| Dr Marko Berovic | Consultant Radiologist |
| Mrs Marisa Botelho Da Cruz | Nuclear Medicine and PET/CT Superintendent |
| Ms Gillian Clarke | Nuclear Medicine Physicist |
| Mr Job Daniel Livingstone | Nuclear Medicine Technologist |
| Mr Adrien Michael Peters | Consultant Nuclear Medicine Physician |
| Dr Saira Reynolds | Consultant Physician Nuclear Medicine |
| Miss Sarah Wicks | Nuclear Medicine Physicist |