Bone scan how long for results

It takes 1 to 4 hours for your bones to absorb the tracer. While you wait, you will drink several glasses of water. By urinating frequently, you will remove radioactive material that has not collected in your bones. The amount of radioactivity in your body is safe for others to be nearby. It is less than the amount from a normal x-ray. Next, you will lie on your back on an exam table. The technologist will place a large scanning camera above your body. You will need to remain still to prevent blurry pictures.

During the scan, the camera moves slowly around your body. It takes pictures of the tracer in your bones. The technologist may ask you to change positions during the scan. This helps to get pictures from different angles. A whole-body bone scan takes about 1 hour to finish. The scan is not painful. You may feel discomfort from staying in the same position for a long time.

You can do normal activities after the scan. This includes driving. You should not feel any side effects from the tracer or the test itself. Your doctor may ask you to drink lots of water for the next 1 to 2 days. This flushes out any tracer left in your body. Typically, all of the radioactive material washes away after 2 days. Call your doctor right away if you have pain, redness, or swelling around the injection site on your arm.

Is the facility accredited by the American College of Radiology to do bone scans? National Library of Medicine: Bone Scan. Bone Scan Approved by the Cancer. How does a bone scan work? Who does a bone scan?

You can have a bone scan done at: A hospital's radiology or nuclear medicine department An outpatient imaging center Getting ready for a bone scan When you schedule your bone scan, the hospital or imaging center staff will tell you how to prepare.

No areas of too much or too little tracer are seen. The tracer has accumulated in certain areas of the bone, indicating one or more "hot" spots. Hot spots may be caused by a fracture that is healing, bone cancer, a bone infection osteomyelitis , arthritis , or a disease of abnormal bone metabolism such as Paget's disease.

Certain areas of the bone lack the presence of tracer, indicating one or more "cold" spots. Cold spots may be caused by a certain type of cancer such as multiple myeloma or lack of blood supply to the bone bone infarction. Reasons you may not be able to have the test or why the results may not be helpful include:.

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Top of the page. Test Overview A bone scan is a test that can find damage to the bones, find cancer that has spread to the bones, and watch problems such as infection and trauma to the bones.

Why It Is Done A bone scan is done to: Find bone cancer or determine whether cancer from another area, such as the breast, lung, kidney, thyroid gland , or prostate gland , has spread metastasized to the bone. Help diagnose the cause or location of unexplained bone pain, such as ongoing low back pain. A bone scan may be done first to help determine the location of an abnormal bone in complex bone structures such as the foot or spine.

Follow-up evaluation then may be done with a computed tomography CT scan or magnetic resonance imaging MRI. Help diagnose broken bones, such as a hip fracture or a stress fracture , not clearly seen on X-ray. Find damage to the bones caused by infection or other conditions, such as Paget's disease.

How To Prepare Before the bone scan, tell your doctor if: You are or might be pregnant. You are breastfeeding. The radioactive tracer used in this test can get into your breast milk. Do not breastfeed your baby for 1 or 2 days after this test. During this time, you can give your baby breast milk you stored before the test, or you can give formula. Discard the breast milk you pump in the 1 or 2 days after the test. Within the past 4 days, you have had an X-ray test using barium contrast material such as a barium enema or have taken a medicine such as Pepto-Bismol that contains bismuth.

Barium and bismuth can interfere with test results. You may be asked to sign a consent form. How It Is Done A bone scan is usually done by a nuclear medicine technologist.

A bone scan takes about 1 hour. How It Feels You may feel nothing at all from the needle when the tracer is injected, or you may feel a brief sting or pinch. You don't need to restrict your diet or avoid particular activities in preparation for a bone scan. Let your doctor know if you've taken a medicine containing bismuth, such as Pepto-Bismol, or if you've had an X-ray test using barium contrast material within the past four days.

Barium and bismuth can interfere with bone scan results. Bone scans aren't usually performed on pregnant women or nursing mothers because of concerns about radiation exposure to the baby. Tell your doctor if you're pregnant — or think you might be pregnant — or if you're nursing. A bone scan is a nuclear imaging procedure.

In nuclear imaging, tiny amounts of radioactive materials tracers are injected into a vein and taken up in varying amounts at different sites in the body. Areas of the body where cells and tissues are repairing themselves most actively take up the largest amounts of tracer.

Nuclear images highlight these areas, suggesting the presence of abnormalities associated with disease or injury.

Tracers will be injected into a vein in your arm. The amount of time between the injection and scan varies, depending on the reason your doctor has ordered the scan.

Some images may be taken immediately after the injection. But the main images are taken two to four hours later to allow the tracer to circulate and be absorbed by your bones. Your doctor may recommend that you drink several glasses of water while you wait. You'll be asked to lie still on a table while an arm-like device supporting a tracer-sensitive camera passes back and forth over your body. The scan itself can take up to an hour. The procedure is painless.

Your doctor might order a three-phase bone scan, which includes a series of images taken at different times. A number of images are taken as the tracer is injected, then shortly after the injection, and again three to five hours after the injection.

To better see some bones in your body, your doctor might order additional imaging called single-photon emission computerized tomography SPECT. This imaging can help with conditions that are especially deep in your bone or in places that are difficult to see. A bone scan generally has no side effects, and no follow-up care is needed.