Nuclear Scan Machine

Nuclear medicine scans can detect glandular dysfunctions like hyperthyroidism.

Nuclear scan machine.

Nuclear medicine scans provide the most useful diagnostic or treatment information for many diseases. Nuclear scans make pictures based on the body s chemistry like metabolism rather than on physical shapes and forms as is the case with other imaging tests. The images are digitally generated on a computer and transferred to a nuclear medicine physician who interprets the images to make a diagnosis. Nuclear medicine scans provide the most useful diagnostic or treatment information for many diseases.

During the scan you ll be asked to lie still on a table while a machine with an arm like device supporting the gamma camera passes over your body to record the pattern of tracer absorption by your bones. Spect scans involve two steps. A nuclear medicine scan is less expensive and may yield more precise information than exploratory surgery. A scan of your entire skeleton takes as long as 60 minutes.

If you have coronary artery disease it is possible that you could experience chest pain during exercise or when a drug is given. The tracer dose is very small. These scans use liquid substances called radionuclide s also called tracers or radiopharmaceuticals that release low levels of radiation. Nuclear medicine imaging is a method of producing images by detecting radiation from different parts of the body after a radioactive tracer is given to the patient.

It can also assess how well your heart pumps blood to your body. The machine involved in this sort of test tends to be somewhat cavernous and patients must usually lie on their backs and be inserted into or covered completely by the scanning device. A nuclear heart scan is an imaging test that uses special cameras and a radioactive substance called a tracer to create pictures of your heart. A nuclear medicine scan is less expensive and may yield more precise information than exploratory surgery.

You ll begin by removing all jewelry. The test can detect problems with blood flow in the heart tissue and can diagnose ischemic heart disease. You may be required to change into a hospital gown. You ll receive a radioactive substance through an intravenous iv infusion into a vein in your arm.

Scanning a limited area of your body takes less time. A pet scanner is a large machine with a round donut shaped hole in the middle. Receiving a radioactive substance. The machine used to complete the scan looks like a large metal donut with a table coming out of it.

It looks similar to a ct or mri unit.