PET scanning: Should You Be Scared?

When you hear about X-ray, MRI, CT, PET at the time of when you require getting imaging done, it can begin to sound like a blend. They all give images of the inside of your body, but every single type of imaging has its own strengths. A PET scan does not give you only images but it even shows how your body is working.

Pet CTscans Mumbai or PET scan in any other city; good centres always get you the best PET scanning provisions. For your information PET is short form for “positron emission tomography.” It caters information about blood flow and how your body is making use of oxygen and sugar. It is something that might give vital clues about how an illness is unfolding.

Once you get a PET scan, your doctor first gets you a radioactive substance known as a radiotracer (or just “tracer”). The tracer gives off radiation that the PET scan machine picks up on. The pictures you get show where in your body the tracer enters. In case it builds up in any types of areas that could be a signal of disease.

Why would anyone need a pet scan?

A PET scan can help medical experts or doctors test for ailment, prepare for surgery, and find out how well treatments are working. A person might get one for several reasons, but these are most often used with the ailment of heart disease, cancer, and brain conditions. Your medical expert may use a PET scan to:

• Check in case cancer treatment is working
• Find cancer
• Find out if cancer has spread
• Determine in case cancer returned after treatment

If you have heart disease, your doctor could use a PET scan to:

• Examine blood flow to your heart muscles
• Assist decide the best treatment for clogged arteries
• Look at the impacts of a heart attack

Your medical expert may also use it to check for brain situations like:

• Parkinson’s disease
• Alzheimer’s disease
• Tumours
• Seizures
• Stroke

How Do PET Scans vary from CT and MRI Scans?

It is a good question and might be popping in your mind already.  Medical experts or doctors use diverse kinds of imaging for various reasons. Often, you begin with an X-ray because it is a swift way to get basic information. But in case you require finer detail, you could then get a CT scan or MRI. Various doctors use MRI or PET and CT or PET hybrid scanners that combine the two instruments into a single scan. It is something that permits doctors to do either a CT or MRI scan in mixture with a PET scan all at once.

The PET scan can show what is actually taking place in your cells. One reason that is absolutely vital is that early on, some ailments do not trigger changes you can see with a CT scan or MRI scans.  But they do trigger changes in how your cells do work or are working. It simply means a PET scan could help your doctor find an ailment that other kinds of imaging cannot.

How should you get ready for a pet scan?

Before you go any further, you might need to tell your doctor about any of the below mentioned:

• Allergies, mainly to contrast dye, seafood or iodine,
• Health conditions, such as diabetes, or any ailments you’ve had recently
• herbs, Medicines, and supplements you take

In case you’re a woman, tell your doctor if you’re:

• Breastfeeding: you might require pumping milk because you cannot breastfeed until the tracer is out of the body. You must have a word with your doctor to find out how long you should wait.
• Pregnant or think you might be: the tracer can really damage your baby, so speak with your doctor about the finest options for you.

Your medical expert will give you particular directions to prepare for your scan. Make sure that you follow them closely. Moreover, no matter you is a man or woman; you have to:

• Avoid intense physical activity for twenty four hours before the scan
• Intake only water and evade eating for several hours prior to the pet scan
• Take off all the piercings, jewelry, and the metal objects from the body that you might be having.

What getting a PET scan feel like?

It really depends why and where you get the scan, but characteristically, you:

• Change into a hospital gown
• Go to the washroom/bathroom
• Get the tracer – relying on the type, you would either breathe it in, swallow it, or get it through a needle
• Wait 30 minutes to an hour for your body to absorb the tracer
• Lay absolutely still on your back when images are taken. It is important not to talk or move during the time of scan that may last up to an hour.

The PET scan machine is a huge, open circle such as a standing donut – having a table that moves in and out of it. In case you have a fear of tight, closed spaces, you might receive a drug to help keep you tranquil. You might hear the machine buzz and click as the machine takes images. If you get to hear loud noises and sounds, there is no need to panic. It is natural and it would happen. Moreover the scan itself is painless. However, for some individuals, to stay still for so long is the toughest part and might cause some discomfort or aches. Once the scan is done, drink plenty of fluids to help flat the tracer out of your body. Your doctor might suggest you avoid close link with kids, pregnant women, or even babies for a few hours as you would be radioactive for some time.

Conclusion

So, if you are heading to Pet CT scan centre in Mumbai for scanning, take it easy. It is not going to give you any pain or trouble.