Coming of Age of Nuclear Medicine

A pioneer in nuclear medicine and past president of the Society of Nuclear Medicine, Professor Henry N. Wagner Jr., MD has spent nearly five decades helping to define and promote the specialty. His groundbreaking work in the applications of nuclear medicine to pulmonary and coronary artery disease and his studies of brain chemistry with radio-labelled tracers have led to significant advances in these fields. Wagner is the director of the Division of Radiation Health Sciences at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where he has worked since 1958. He is a professor emeritus of radiology and radiological sciences at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and a professor of environmental health sciences at the School of Hygiene and Public Health. A prolific researcher and writer, Wagner is author or co-author of more than 800 publications, including peer-reviewed journal articles, books and chapters. He is a member of several editorial boards and many medical and radiological societies, and an honorary member of the British Institute of Radiology (2000).

Foreword.- The Birth of Nuclear Medicine.- Fear of radiation.- My first contact with radiotracer techniques.- Liver scanning during my medical residency.- Nuclear medicine is born at Hopkins.- Spleen, heart, kidney and lung scanning.- The birth of nuclear cardiology.- Nuclear oncology.- Nuclear medicine recognized as a specialty by AMA.- The American Board of Nuclear Medicine.- The Society of Nuclear Medicine.- The World Federation of Nuclear Medicine and Biology.- Three Mile Island.- Chernobyl.- Fukushima.- Nuclear power in the future.- Cyclotrons.- Political problems.