A literature review of the cost-effectiveness of nuclear medicine

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Nuclear medicine is a medical specialty that uses tiny quantities of radioactivity to produce diagnostic images. It also has a role in therapy for some thyroid diseases and certain tumours. Surveys have shown that nuclear medicine procedures are used significantly less in the United Kingdom than in many other countries in Europe. One reason may be that there is inadequate information about the clinical utility of these techniques, particularly their cost effectiveness in clinical management. In order to establish what evidence was currently available about the cost effectiveness of nuclear medicine, the British Nuclear Medicine Society commissioned a worldwide literature review in diseases of the heart, kidney, lung, bone, brain, bowel and thyroid. This volume summarises the findings of the independent study and gives details of the background, clinical utility and limitations of the different nuclear medicine procedures used in the diagnosis and treatment of each disease reviewed. A comprehensive bibliography of the 382 papers reviewed appears at the end of the book.

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