Lung Scan

Nuclear Medicine

The patient was ironically a technologist.

Lung scan was quickly needed in order to ensure that the patient’s blood clot had not traveled upward to the chest area from his leg.

Part 1 (air): The patient breathes in and out through an aerosol filled with oxygen that is tagged with an isotope. The patient only uses his mouth to breathe in the oxygen. This isotope reside inside the lungs.

Then the patient is transported to the Spect scan where the machine creates a 3D image of the lung using the radiation from the isotopes.

Part 2 (blood): MAA is used in which isotopes are injected into the vein through the patient’s IV. First, the technician must check whether the IV is properly functional. Then, she injects half of saline. Next, she injects the radioactive isoptope. Finally, the rest of the saline to ensured that all of the radioactive material has been fully injected into the vein.

The patient then has another Spect scan.