Question, Any one had a SPECT Scan?

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I was watching a Youtube video and someone on the video was talking about how much information a neurologist can get from a spect scan. I thought about how much it would show my doctors what is going on with my brain so that they could try to figure out what is going on.

 

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I’ve never had one. I’ve always wanted a PET scan which can illuminate mental health conditions or lack of conditions and reasons for having those conditions, but have never found a place in UT that does them. I’m sure they gave them in LA. I think PET scans are used for more for research than diagnosis.

From what I know from four years of transcribing radiology exam dictations, nuclear medicine scans like a SPECT are typically used to monitor cancer progression. But I think you should ask about having one because what you have going on is as serious as cancer. Know that if you do have a SPECT scan, you’ll be so radioactive that you’ll likely have to spend 1 to 2 nights in a hospital in an isolation room. Then when you get home you’re not allowed to sleep with anybody or a pet for a number of weeks if not months.

 

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At least, that’s what my mom had to do when she received nuclear medicine - the isolation part. She took a pill to annihilate her thyroid, so it was probably more nuclear medication than a SPECT scan.

 

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@snow

I saw a podcast were Miley Cyrus said she had a Spect scan and her doctor was able to help her with a lot of things all the way down to what she should eat to help her brain work better, how much she should sleep, and why she needed brakes from stress.

 

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@ThatFLGuy You can certainly ask your docs if having a SPECT scan could be beneficial for you. All they can say is no. I think Miley’s claims sound a little dramatic but they’re probably somewhat true.

 

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@ThatFLGuy I have had one of these scans, it was useful in that it confirmed things I suspected, but didnt find anything new. As snow says it involves being injected with a radioactive isotope, waiting for the isotope to circulate and then being scanned. Here in the UK you are told to stay away from anyone under 16 for several days. I seem to remember that it is 3 days before you can mix freely again. I dont remember any particular side effects apart from pain at the injection site.

 

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@snow I agree that these claims seem a bit odd unless the US scan is very different from the UK one?

 

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@physlink I think they’re the same.

 

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@snow

At least, that’s what my mom had to do when she received nuclear medicine - the isolation part. She took a pill to annihilate her thyroid, so it was probably more nuclear medication than a SPECT scan.

I had thyroid cancer and thyroidectomy in 2011, followed by a single radioactive iodine-131 pill. I didn't have to stay in the hospital, but I had to isolate myself from everyone for about a week at home (even had to flush the toilet multiple times to get it out of the house). The iodine-131 was to kill any cells that may have escaped the thyroidectomy to prevent a new thyroid from growing elsewhere in the body.