Bone scan
Bone scans can help identify hidden fractures that cannot be seen in regular x-rays, they can also help detect bone cancer, arthritis, reason for mysterious bone pain and bone infections. In a normal x-ray, the radiation passes through the body and creates an image on the x-ray placed on the other side of the body, whereas in a bone scan the radiation travels to the surface of the body that is in turn detected by a camera. All metal items in contact with the body have to be removed before a bone scan. There are no restrictions on eating and drinking. Bone scans are not performed on pregnant women. You have to arrive 4 hours before the scan and let the tracer settle well into your body.Bone scan procedure involves:
- An injection with tracers is injected into the vein in your arm.
- After this you have to wait for 2-4 hours to allow the tracers to circulate and become absorbed by your bones. In organs and tissues such as the bones, this radionuclide gets accumulated.
- You will be asked to drink lots of water to pass out the unabsorbed radioactive material through the urine. The absorbed radioactive material will flush out through the urine by 24 hours.
- During the bone scan, you will be made to lie motionless on the table, as a device with an arm-like gadget holding the gamma camera passes above the body. When the tracers enter the body, they emit gamma waves of radiation that can be detected by a special camera.
- The camera in turn generates images that can be inferred by radiologists or nuclear medicine specialists.
- The scan takes about 30-60 minutes for the entire skeletal and even less if only for specified areas.
When no abnormal area is seen with high or low accumulation of the tracers, the radioactive material is evenly distributed. This indicates that the bone area that is scanned is normal. In abnormal cases, radioactive material accumulates in a particular area of the bone. This is known as a hot spot. Hot spots can indicate a healing fracture, bone cancer, bone infection, arthritis or a disease of an abnormal bone metabolism. Certain spots may indicate less absorption of the radioactive material, they are called cold spots. This could indicate cancer or lack of blood supply to the bone.
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