What to do with clothes after a bone scan

We know that bone scan is the common name for "bone imaging", which is one of the commonly used examination items in nuclear medicine. Isotope whole body bone scan uses radionuclides to detect morphological or metabolic abnormalities of bone tissue. To a certain extent, bone scans have a certain amount of radioactivity, and this radioactivity is harmful to the human body. So let’s take a look at what we should do with our clothes after a bone scan!

1. Medical significance

Bone scans can detect bone metastases at an early stage. Therefore, for patients with a mass of unknown nature, the presence of bone metastases means that the mass is malignant, that is, it has metastasized to the bones. For patients who have been diagnosed with cancer, it helps to clinically stage the cancer, that is, to determine whether it is in the early or late stages, so that doctors can decide which treatment method to use, whether it is local surgery, radiotherapy, or systemic chemotherapy, and whether it is necessary to perform extensive and thorough eradication in the case of local surgery. Cancer patients who have undergone treatment can observe the presence of bone metastasis and changes in the extent of bone metastasis through regular repeated bone scans (each scan is performed every 3 months to 1 year) to monitor the efficacy of treatment and tumor recurrence. Bone scanning can determine whether the pain is caused by arthritis or para-articular bone lesions, whether it is bone and joint lesions or visceral or neural pain. It can diagnose various metabolic bone and joint lesions, and diagnose osteomyelitis early in limb soft tissue inflammation. It can detect subtle fractures in special parts such as metatarsal bones and ribs, observe the blood supply and survival of transplanted bones, and evaluate the treatment effects of the above-mentioned benign and malignant bone and joint lesions. Therefore, bone scanning is a routine examination item for cancer patients abroad and is also the most important examination item in the nuclear medicine department of large comprehensive hospitals in China.

2. Whole body bone scan

Isotope whole-body bone scan uses radionuclides to detect metabolic abnormalities in bone tissue throughout the body, and obtains whole-body skeletal images in one scan. Isotope bone scanning may be used in the following situations:

3. Preoperative bone scan

(1) Early diagnosis of primary bone tumors and soft tissue and lung metastases of bone tumors;

(2) Check for unexplained bone pain;

(3) Selection of bone pathological histological examination sites;

(4) Develop a radiotherapy plan;

(5) Preoperative staging and post-treatment follow-up of other systemic tumors such as lymphoma, breast cancer, lung cancer, and prostate cancer;

(6) Screening of patients suspected of having tumors;

(7) Diagnosis and follow-up of inflammatory lesions of bones;

(8) Differential diagnosis of bone and joint trauma such as stress fractures and ischemic osteonecrosis;

(9) Localization diagnosis of Paget's disease and follow-up after treatment.

4. Differences from CT

There are significant differences between nuclear medicine imaging diagnosis ECT (also called SPECT) and CT. Nuclear medicine examinations require the injection of drugs first, using the radioactivity of the drugs to produce images. CT is a machine that emits X-rays that penetrate the human body for imaging! There is a machine called SPECT/CT which does both at the same time and then fuses the images after they come out! This type of examination does very little harm to the body, so don't worry. Generally, everything will be fine after the drug decays in about a day.

CT belongs to radiation, and ECT belongs to nuclear medicine. Radiation looks at lesions from an anatomical perspective, while nuclear medicine looks at lesions from a functional perspective. It would be best if you can do SPECT/CT. When doing ECT, if the staff finds that you have suspicious lesions, they will do CT as well. In this way, ECT and CT can be done together without changing their positions. Then, through fusion processing, your lesions can be seen more clearly. And the cost is less than the combined cost of CT and ECT.