Bone Scan

What is a Bone Scan?

Bone Scan is used to survey the abnormal activity uptake in the whole body bones.

How is it done?

Bone Scan: 

-  Patient will be injected with a radiopharmaceutical form. Patients will have to wait for about 2 ½ - 3 hours before the actual scan.  It will take approximately 45 minutes for the scanning procedure.

3-Phase Bone Scan: 

-  Patient is injected with the same radiopharmaceutical as Bone scan but the imaging will be taken during the injection at the problematic area which is called the vascular phase.

-  Another image will be taken 5 minutes after the injection. This is called soft tissue phase.

-  Another image will be taken 3 hours after the injection. This time, the image will be taken for the whole body and spot images. This will takes approximately 45 minutes.

Why is it done?

Bone Scan:  To evaluate patients with malignancy, diffuse musculoskeletal symptoms, abnormal laboratory results, and hereditary or metabolic disorders.

3-Phase Bone Scan:  To detect areas of suspected trauma and musculoskeletal sepsis. The flow and early blood pool phases are positive in very active processes and may help in determining whether the abnormalities are recent.

Risks & complications

-  Because the doses of radiopharmaceutical administered are very small, nuclear medicine procedures result in exposure to a small dose of radiation. Nuclear medicine has been used for more than five decades, and there are no known long-term adverse effects from such low-dose studies.

-  As with all radiologic procedures, be sure to inform your physician if you are pregnant. In general, exposure to radiation during pregnancy should be kept to a minimum.

-  Allergic reactions to the radiopharmaceutical can occur, but are extremely rare.

Alternatives

None

Candidate eligibility

Suitable for patient who: 

-  Needs to be evaluated for malignancy, diffuse musculoskeletal symptoms, abnormal laboratory results, and hereditary or metabolic disorders.

-  Suspicion of trauma and musculoskeletal sepsis.