What does a radioactive injection do?
For example, if you have radioactive iodine injected into a vein, the tissues of your thyroid gland quickly absorb it. So, it is used to take images of your thyroid gland. The dose of radioactivity you get is very low (about the same as you get from an x-ray). Almost all of it leaves your body within a few days.
How long are you radioactive after a PET scan?
What happens after a PET scan? After the test, you can go about your day unless your doctor gives you other instructions. However, because radioactive material will remain in your body for about 12 hours, you’ll want to limit your contact with both pregnant women and infants during this time.
What should I avoid after a PET scan?
The Day of Your PET-CT
- Don’t eat anything.
- Don’t chew gum or suck on hard candy, mints, or cough drops.
- You may drink only water.
- If you take medications, take them with water only.
How long should you avoid people after a PET scan?
As a precaution, you should avoid close contact with pregnant women, babies and young children for 6 hours after the scan. You need someone to take you home and stay overnight if you’ve had medicine to help you relax (sedative).
Can I drive myself home after a PET scan?
You may leave after the scan is complete. If you normally drive, you should have no trouble driving yourself home. You may resume eating and drinking unless otherwise instructed differently. Drinking plenty of fluids will help you excrete the radiotracer from your system.
What are the disadvantages of a PET scan?
For your PET scan, a radioactive drug (tracer) will be put into your body. Because the amount of radiation you’re exposed to is small, the risk of negative effects from it is low. But the tracer might: Cause a major allergic reaction, in rare instances.
Why don’t we do routine PET scans?
PET and PET-CT scans have risks. Also, PET, and especially PET-CT scans, expose you to high levels of radiation. The effects of radiation add up over your lifetime. This can increase your risk of cancer. Multiple scans should not be done unless medical evidence shows that they would help.
What do black spots on a PET scan mean?
In the PET image to the right, darker areas represent those that are using more sugar, and so have more of the radioactive substance in them. For example, because healthy tissue uses glucose for energy, it accumulates some of the tagged glucose, which will show up on the PET images.