LIVER AND SPLEEN SCANS
Liver and Spleen Function Assessment
A nuclear imaging exam can help your physician see the size of your liver and spleen and evaluate how well these organs are functioning. Using a small amount of radioactive material and specialized imaging technology, this safe and painless procedure provides detailed information about organ health and performance. This information can help in the diagnosis and treatment of injury or disease, including conditions such as cirrhosis, infections, enlarged organs, and functional abnormalities.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Your technologist will inject a small amount of radioactive material in a vein. After your injection, a gamma camera will be use to take images of your body from many different angles.
For an exam looking for a hemangioma in the liver, your technologist will first draw a small amount of blood from a vein in your arm. This drawn blood is mixed with a radioisotope in the lab that binds to your red blood cells. This process is called labeling. The treated blood is injected back into the vein in your arm and allows us to image where the red blood cells go in your body.
The scan typically takes about 45 minutes. However, you should plan for additional time for check-in and preparation.
No, the procedure is painless. You’ll receive a small injection of radioactive material in a vein, similar to a regular blood draw, but the imaging itself is non-invasive.
A small amount of radioactive tracer (radioisotope) is injected into your vein. This material is safe and allows the gamma camera to capture detailed images of your liver and spleen.
A hemangioma scan is a specialized liver and spleen scan used to detect benign tumors in the liver. For this exam, we draw a small amount of your blood, label it with a radioisotope that binds to red blood cells, and then reinject it to track blood flow patterns.