Nuclear Medicine - Bone Scan

A former-patient has kindly given an account of their experience when they visited the Nuclear Medicine room.

Purpose:
To examine my spine for the possibility of a cancerous metastasis in the bone structure.

Experience:
I attended the radiology department and was quickly met by a radiographer who took me into a consulting room where she described the procedure. She then gave me an injection a radioactive liquid in a vein in my arm and explained it was the radiation from this liquid which would be detected by the scanner. However the amount of this radiation decreases with time falling to virtually nothing within 24 hours. Also it would take about three hours for it to be fully absorbed in the bone structure. In the meantime I was able to leave the hospital and go home and continue normally.

After three hours I returned to the hospital where the radiographer greeted me and took me along to the scanning room. I was asked to take off my jacket and remove my belt and any metallic objects.

Having laid on my back on the couch, the single large detection head of the scanning machine was positioned over and very close to my face. I was asked to keep still and then the head started to move very slowly horizontally towards my feet, taking about 10 minutes to do so. The radiographer remained nearby in the room, observing the image being formed on the TV type monitor.

The scanning head was then repositioned under the couch and slowly traversed back again towards my head. After another 10 minutes the scan was completed.

The radiographer, had noted an possible anomaly on the image and arranged for me to have a plain x-ray straight away.

I was told the report on both examinations would be sent to my referring doctor within 10 days. Having recovered the articles I took off, I was able to leave the department.

Duration:
The time spent in the department when having the initial injection was only about 10 minutes. The time for the bone scan was about half an hour, and the time taken in the department including the x-ray was 50 minutes.

Side effects:
Apart from the normal slight pain when having an injection, I felt no discomfort at all. I was advised that some patients were concerned with having the scanning head so close to the face but it didn't worry me and, anyway, it wasn't in this position for long.