Nuclear Medicine is a specialty that is used to diagnose and treat diseases in a safe and painless way.  Nuclear medicine procedures permit the determination of medical information that may otherwise be unavailable, require surgery, or necessitate more expensive and invasive diagnostic tests.  The procedures often identify abnormalities very early in the progression of a disease- long before medical problems are apparent with other diagnostic tests.  Early detection allows a disease to be treated sooner in its course when a more successful prognosis may be possible. 

Patients at the Mankato Clinic are referred to have tests in the Nuclear Medicine department by their primary or specialty heatlh care providers.