A review of patient preparation for nuclear medicine scintigraphy: What the referring clinicians want to know

Learning Objectives 1. To evoke the awareness of the referring clinicians to the involved patient preparation prior to a nuclear medicine study. 2. To centralize the vast information that pertains to patient preparation. 3. To prevent limited, difficult or canceled studies secondary to poor patient preparation.

Far too often have nuclear medicine studies been canceled, or deemed limited/difficult secondary to lack of adequate patient preparation prior to the study. It is the intent of this educational exhibit to review the necessary steps to ensure the appropriate preparation of these patients from the time the clinician writes the prescription until the time of injection. The Society of Nuclear Medicine has outlined the various guidelines for each procedure. This review will draw on these guidelines and further centralize this information to provide the clinicians with the pertinent and necessary information. This exhibit will include the following studies: myocardial perfusion imaging, thyroid uptake measurements, parathyroid imaging, thyroid studies, gastric emptying imaging, hepatobiliary scintigraphy, gastrointestinal bleeding/Meckel's diverticulum scintigraphy, renal imaging, bone scans, gallium imaging, tagged WBC studies, brain death studies, lung scintigraphy, as well as various oncologic and pediatric studies. Pre-arrival and pre-injection recommendations will be discussed