The nuclear medicine physician may even do a brief physical examination. The following steps take place after the initial interview. You will lie on the scanning table with your clothes on. The technologist will position you under the gamma camera. You will then be given the radiopharmaceutical by vein or you may have already received it some time beforehand by mouth or vein.
Most scans require different images.
Each image takes from five to 15 minutes. This is routinely done with heart studies and takes about 35 minutes. When the scan is completed, you may go home. The results will be reported to your physician the day after the study is performed. Emergency studies will be reported the same day.