St. Rita's Nuclear Medicine Department performs bone scan testing. Bone scans help detect a number of conditions including, bone diseases, infections or inflammatory disorders of the bone, bone tumors and certain types of bone fractures.
A bone scan is non-invasive nuclear medicine test and requires no special patient preparation prior to the exam. Before the actual bone scan is performed, a patient will receive an injection of a small dose of a radioactive substance, sometimes called a radioactive isotope. This is a safe dose of isotope and most people report experiencing no affects from the injection.
The scan is performed a few hours after the injection (approximately three hours). This delay of time, from the point of the injection to the actual bone scan, allows the isotope to be "taken up" in the bones. While the patient is reclined on an imaging table, a special camera scans the body and records the degree of isotope uptake in the bones. After the exam, a radiologist will evaluate the images and share the results with the ordering physician. The patient receives the results from his/her physician.
Like other nuclear tests, bone scans are safe. After the test, the patient will be encouraged to drink fluids to clear the isotope from the body. Other nuclear medicine tests are usually not scheduled for one to two days.
