LIVER AND SPLEEN SCANS

A nuclear imaging exam can help your physician see the size of your liver and spleen and evaluate how well these organs are functioning. This information can help in the diagnosis and treatment of injury or disease.

The test may also be performed to detect a hemangioma, a benign tumor generally found in the liver.

What should I expect?

Your technologist will inject a small amount of radioactive material in a vein. After your injection, a gamma camera will be use to take images of your body from many different angles. The scan typically takes about 45 minutes.

For an exam looking for a hemangioma in the liver, your technologist will first draw a small amount of blood from a vein in your arm. This drawn blood is mixed with a radioisotope in the lab that binds to your red blood cells.  This process is called labeling. The treated blood is injected back into the vein in your arm and allows us to image where the red blood cells go in your body.