Scintigraphy

What Is Scintigraphy?

Scintigraphy is a nuclear medicine method performed by administering drugs orally or intravenously to diagnose various types of cancer, various diseases such as endocrine and neurological disorders, heart diseases, determine their severity, and molecular imaging of the disease occurring in organs and tissues.

What Diseases Is Scintigraphy Used For?

Endocrinology
Thyroid; goiter diagnosis and treatment follow-up
Parathyroid; lesion detection
In Infection
Marked Leukocyte
Bone Marrow with Nanocolloid
Marked Immunoglobulins
In the Gastrointestinal System
Liver-Spleen Scintigraphy
Gastroesophageal Reflux Scintigraphy
Esophageal transit study
Hepatobiliary Scintigraphy
Gastrointestinal Bleeding Study
Salivary Gland Scintigraphy
Gastric Emptying Time
The Genitourinary System
Kidney Cortex Scintigraphy
Dynamic Kidney Scintigraphy
Static DMSA Renal Scintigraphy
Kidney Scintigraphy with Captopril
Testicular Scintigraphy
In the Cardiovascular System
Myocardial Perfusion Scintigraphy; cardiac muscle viability, heart failure,
Myocardial Sympathetic Injection Scintigraphy
Muga; detection of whole or regional movement disorders of the heart
Musculoskeletal System
Three-Phase Bone Scintigraphy
Whole Body Bone Scintigraphy; Investigation of the extent of spread of cancer to bones and causes of pain
Bone Marrow Scintigraphy
Pulmonary (Respiratory) System
Lung perfusion scintigraphy; possibility of diagnosis of pulmonary embolism, evaluation of lung functions before lung cancer operation
Lung perfusion/ventilation scintigraphy
Lung quantitative perfusion scintigraphy
The Central Nervous System
Brain Perfusion Scintigraphy; In the diagnosis of epilepsy, tumors, blood circulation failure, development of clinical findings in cases with Alzheimer's risk

How Is Scintigraphy Performed?

People who perform scintigraphy should be experts and professionals in their fields. It is applied by nuclear medicine technologists who know how to use the devices and how to apply them to the patient.
Scintigraphy is also known as gamma scanning, in which images are taken through cameras and transferred to a computer. The images are processed on the computer, then a more precise and clear information about the structures of the organs is obtained.

Scintigraphy images can be 2 or 3-dimensional. Imaging systems, which are extremely effective, produce very effective results in diagnosing and treating many diseases.

In order to be able to display comfortably in the scintigraphy method, it is necessary to wear a special apron. The nurse gives the special medicine to the patient in various ways (mouth, vein). The special drug is expected to reach the damaged place in the body. Radiation waves emitted by the gamma camera are processed. The patient must be immobile. It is said that it should change direction at any time. The data are examined by the doctor and if the desired data are not obtained, the procedure is repeated.

What Are the Types of Scintigraphy?

Types of scintigraphy are named according to the tissue and organ applied by the scintigraphy method.
These varieties are as follows:

Heart scintigraphy; diseases in the vessels and muscles of the heart are detected. It can be applied with two steps. First, movements in the blood are observed after stress. Secondly, blood movements are observed after people rest. And the data obtained as a result of these two steps are compared.
Thyroid scintigraphy is used in this method for the definitive image of thyroid and goiter disease detected in the tests after the doctor's examination.

Bone scintigraphy; this method is used for problems such as bending, calcification, cancer in bones.
Lung scintigraphy; scintigraphy is performed to view the condition of the air sacs. In addition, scintigraphy is performed to determine whether there is blood on the surface of the lung.

Kidney scintigraphy; both physical and functional disruptions in the kidney are visualized.

What Are the Side Effects of Scintigraphy Method?

After the scintigraphy process is completed, the patient can continue his/her life in the same way. There are no side effects afterwards.

Radiation is at the lowest level in scintigraphy imaging. The organs and tissues that are intact are not affected by this radiation. The time it takes for the special medicine given to the patient's body to be removed from the body is very short.

It is important that the special drug does not cause sensitivity to the person. In order for the imaging to be successful, sensitivity events such as allergies should not occur. Its occurrence is quite rare and immediately transient.