- You should not to eat for six hours prior to your appointment. Also refrain from exercising or hard labor 24 hours prior to your scan.
- During the scan, we ask that you relax in a quiet, resting state. It is extremely important that you lie still throughout the scan.
- In most cases, you will be on the scanner table for about 30 minutes.
- The scan itself causes no pain. Because the gantry is open, you will be able to see and speak with your exam technologist.
- An IV line will be started in your hand or arm in order to infuse a radiopharmaceutical.
- For PET scans, a very small amount of a radiopharmaceutical is infused into the bloodstream. The substance contains radioactive molecules that provide imaging information when absorbed, or concentrated in tissue.
- Areas with rapid cell growth, such as malignant tumors, will show much higher concentrations of the dose than normal healthy tissue. A computer records this information and converts it into pictures for diagnostic purposes.
- You should not feel any side effects from the material. Most of the radioactivity will be gone by the time you leave the department.
- It is important that you drink water and empty your bladder often for the rest of the day. This will result in a more rapid clearance of any residual radioactivity from your body.
- You can drive and resume normal activities immediately after leaving the department, unless you have received sedation.
For more information, please see our FAQ section.
What is PET-CT
PET/CT Scans
What to expect
Studies/Images
FAQ
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