Nuclear hematology

Abstract

Nuclear hematology deals with the use of radionuclides or radiopharmaceutical agents in the study of the pathophysiology, diagnosis, and therapy of hematological diseases arising de novo in the hematopoietic tissues or as a consequence of some systemic diseases. This practice virtually began in 1940, when John Lawrence first used 32P to treat a young patient with chronic myeloid leukemia [1]. This was followed by the use of 32P as a radioactive label for red cells to measure blood volume [2]. From these modest beginnings, nuclear hematology has come a long way and evolved into a contemporary discipline as a very useful and often an essential investigative tool in many areas of hematology. Radionuclides are now widely used to label the formed elements of the blood (random labels) to trace their biological distribution, function, and life span in vivo as well as to study the proliferation and differentiation of hematopoietic progenitor and precursor cells in the bone marrow (cohort labels). The other major applications of nuclear hematology include the determination of spleen size, splenic sequestration of blood cells, and investigations relating to the absorption, metabolism, and utilization of hematopoietic nutrients such as iron, vitamin B12, and folate.