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FAQ's - PET / CT ScanQ. How is a PET scan performed?A. Performing an actual PET scan involves having the patient recline on a table that slides into the middle of an "open-air" scanner. Within the scanner are rings of detectors containing special crystals that produce light when struck by radiation. The examination itself takes approximately 25 minutes. The information obtained is then reconstructed into cross-sectional images. During PET/CT, the newest form of PET scanning, an abbreviated CT examination is performed simultaneously with the PET study, improving the accuracy. Q. What is the injection ?A. The patient is injected in a vein with a trace dose of radioactive biochemical (radiopharmaceutical) material approximately 45 minutes before the PET scan. The scanner's electronics record detected gamma rays and maps an image of the area where the radiopharmaceutical is concentrated. Since the radiopharmaceutical is comprised of a chemical commonly processed by the body's metabolism, like sugar, PET enables the physician to detect the location of the metabolic process. As an example, a PET study, using fluro-deoxyglucose (FDG) as the radioisotope, will demonstrate where increased glucose uptake is occurring, thereby detecting certain types of hypermetabolic tumor spread, often even before the spread is visible on standard CT or MRI exams.
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