This textbook seeks to expand the old concept of Nuclear Medicine so as to adapt it to the new scenarios opened especially by the emergence of hybrid imaging, and more generally by the close interaction with other clinical specialties, and achieve the best possible benefits for patients.

In fact, today the diagnostic applications of nuclear medicine cannot be considered as stand-alone procedures, separate from other modalities of diagnostic imaging. This is especially true for those radiologic imaging procedures that can be synergistically combined with nuclear medicine imaging, as is now routinely done with hybrid PET/CT and SPECT/CT (while the use of PET/MR is also growing). 

Thus, today’s Nuclear Medicine specialists are expected to be specialists in multimodality imaging (in addition to expertise in therapy with radionuclides, which is crucial to the autonomy of the discipline). 

This requirement (which forms the basis of developing a new core curriculum for Nuclear Medicine specialists) forms the guiding concept throughout this new textbook, both in terms of its general structure and in each chapter, especially those devoted to the different clinical applications.

Residents in Nuclear Medicine and Diagnostic Imaging and  Medical School students as well as School for Nuclear Medicine Technologists will find this textbook an invaluable tool.