Nuclear scans

[CMNewell <reshan@deyr.ultranet.com>]

>So.... can you please tell me what I reacted to horrendously years ago in
>NYC when I had iodine or whatever dye injected for one of those brain
>"pictures'?


A bone scan is not a brain scan. What one uses as contrast medium, isotope, 
etc. in a radiographic or nuclear study depends on what one is looking for 
and where in the body one is looking.  As has been stated previously, there 
is no iodine involved in bone scans. A Tc-MDP compound, which  is 
prefererntially taken up in areas of active bone remodelling is what it 
used. (FWIW, Tc 99m, the most commonly  used isotope, has a half-life of 6 
hours.)

For someone else who asked, no, the entire horse is not routinely canned. 
The clinician will usually specify an area of interest--front legs, hind 
legs, spine, pelvis, etc.

(I spent a couple of summers  while in school working in nuke med at the 
LAH. It was a blast.)
                                                --CMNewell, DVM