What To Expect During A PET/CT Scan Oklahoma

What to expect the day of your PET/CT scan:

1. Check into the center.
2. The tech will come escort you to an uptake room to ask a couple of questions and check your blood sugar levels.
3. We will inject a radioactive tracer via a small IV into an arm or hand vein. You will then rest in our uptake room for 60 minutes for the body to absorb the injection.
4. After your body has absorbed the injection you will be taken to the scan room to lay on the PET/CT table to start your exam. The table slides through two doughnut shaped holes throughout the scan. Your scan will take between 45 minutes to an hour.
5. Once your scan is complete you can go throughout your day as normal. We request that you drink lots of fluids after your scan to flush the injection out of your body.

How the PET/CT collects images:

While in the PET/CT machine the radioactive atom loses its radioactivity from the tracer, emitting positron inside the patient’s body. Positron combines with electron and then destroys each other producing gamma rays. These rays travel out of the patient’s body in the opposite direction. The camera detects gamma rays and the computer attached to the camera creates three-dimensional images of the examined area. Scans show problems at the cellular level giving the best view of complex systemic diseases. The disease areas will appear as bright spots on these scanned images. Moreover, different colors and degrees of brightness will indicate different levels of tissue function, helping the patient and healthcare professional know how best to move forward.