Nuclear Medicine
Unit
Ninewells Hospital & Medical School
Information for Patients
|
Nuclear Medicine
Unit |
Adrenal Norcholesterol Scan
What is an Adrenal Norcholesterol scan?
An Adrenal (Norcholesterol)
scan is used to examine how your adrenal glands are working. It can show conditions that are not seen using X-rays or
other tests.
Norcholesterol is the name
of the chemical we use.
Conditions
we can investigate include Conn’s Syndrome and Cushing’s syndrome.
These are illnesses where the adrenal glands become over-active.
What are the adrenal glands?
There are normally two adrenal glands found towards the back of the body, above the kidneys. They produce several important hormones that regulate the way the body works. The hormones affect the body in various ways including the immune system, muscle tone, heart rate and how hard the body’s cells work.
Before the Test
You will
be required to take an iodine solution
for a few days around the scan in order to ‘block’ uptake of the tracer into
your thyroid gland. If you receive
an appointment for this test with us, we will send you a letter telling you how
to get the iodine.
What is involved?
Come to
the Nuclear Medicine Unit on three occasions on different days.
On
the first visit we will give you an injection in the arm containing a small
amount of radioactivity.
The
second visit will be a few days later. We
will take some pictures with a Gamma Camera.
After a
few more days you will come back for some more pictures.
The
injection takes a few minutes. Each
set of pictures will take about 1½ hours.
No undressing is required and you may eat normally beforehand.
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Click here to see a larger image of a Norcholesterol scan |
About Nuclear Medicine
To see general information about Nuclear Medicine scans, including pictures of the gamma cameras, select the link below.
Links to other pages
Ó NHS Tayside; 2006; version 1.0
Disclaimer; no liability whatsoever is accepted for information
given and all such information, especially with regard to drug usage (UK version
provided), must be checked with a person’s health provider.
The procedures described above are those
followed by the Nuclear Medicine Unit at Ninewells Hospital & Medical
School, Dundee, United Kingdom. Practice
elsewhere may be different. The
unit serves patients from Tayside and North Fife.
Patients from elsewhere should refer to their local clinicians for
advice.