Nuclear Medicine Unit
Ninewells Hospital & Medical School
Information for Patients
|
Nuclear Medicine Unit |
Iodine Whole Body Scan
What is an Iodine Whole Body scan?
This scan is used to examine how thyroid tissue in your body is working. It can show conditions that are not seen using X-rays.
This scan is requested on patients who have had an operation to remove cancer of the thyroid. It tells the consultant how much thyroid tissue is left. By scanning the whole length of the body we can see if the cancer has spread to other parts of the body.
What is the thyroid gland?
The thyroid produces a hormone which regulates how hard the cells of the body are working.
The thyroid gland is found in the neck.
Before the scan.
If
you are on a thyroid hormone replacement, the hospital consultant may ask you to
stop taking it before the scan. It
is normal to stop thyroxine 3-4 weeks before and T3 about 1 week before.
What is involved?
The scan is performed in two parts on separate days.
The
first part takes place on a Tuesday and should take less than half an hour.
We will ask you to swallow a capsule with some water.
The capsule contains a small amount of radioactive tracer.
The
second part takes place later in the week and will last about 1½ hours.
We will take some pictures with a gamma camera.
Afterwards you will be asked to wait whilst the pictures are processed.
No
undressing is required and you may eat normally beforehand.
 |
Click Here to see a |
About Nuclear Medicine
To see general information about Nuclear Medicine scans, including pictures of the gamma cameras, press the button 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.