Nuclear Medicine
Nuclear Medicine is a safe and painless technique that uses small radioactive doses (radioisotopes) to diagnose and treat disease. A special type of camera is used in conjunction with computers to scan the body parts which are injected with a radioisotope. None of the radioisotopes that are used cause any allergic reaction to the patient.

Procedures:
Procedures that require special preparations:

Hida Scan: No food or drink (NPO) for 6 hours and No Morphine or Demerol for 4 hours prior to study. Study is to view the gallbladder and see if the cystic duct and common bile duct are open and working. This study is a minimum of one hour and may take up to two hours.
Dual Isotope Cardiac Stress Test: No food or drink (NPO) for four to six hours. This test is a two-part test. You will be injected and rest images will be taken. The stress test is done with a cardiologist present with images following. Both sets of images take approximately 20 minutes.
Gastric Emptying Study: No food or drink (NPO) for eight hours prior to study. You will eat oatmeal with a small amount of radioactive material added. Then you are imaged for approximately one hour as the camera documents how the oatmeal is leaving your stomach.
Thyroid Uptake and Scan: Thyroid uptake and scans are performed as a two-day procedure. On the day of the exam you are given a diagnostic iodine capsule to swallow. Four hours later, you return to the department for an uptake and scan. The following morning for the twenty four (24) hour uptake is completed. This exam requires that you are not on any thyroid medication and have not have had any exams that used Intravenous (IV) iodine based contrast for a minimum of six weeks prior to the scan.

Procedures that do not require special preparations:

Lung Scans: A lung scan is a two-part study that looks at air flow and blood flow to the lungs. This study is to evaluate for blood clots in the lungs. The entire exam takes approximately 45 minutes to complete. You will breath into a mask that will contain a radioactive gas. After the ventilation study, you will be injected with an isotope to look at blood flow.
Bone Scans: You are injected with a radioisotope in a vein. You then leave the department and return three to four hours later for the 30 minute scan.
Liver Scan: You are injected with a radioisotope in a vein. Then pictures are taken of different angles of the liver. These images can usually be completed in a 30 minute period.

We also do many studies that involve blood tagging and studies that look for infection or masses. These studies involve injection with a radioisotope and some studies require you to come to the nuclear medicine department for a 45 minute scan for up to four days. Some of these are Gallium Scans, Indium Scans and Cisternograms. We also do Thyroid Therapies using higher doses of Radioactive Iodine. These studies are done for patients with hyperthyroidism and also for patients that have thyroid cancer.

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