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This study is designed to see if there is any residual uptake of iodine-123 in the area of your thyroid or in any other areas of your body (which would be indicative of thyroid metastases).
You will be requested to attend the Nuclear Medicine Department for a blood sample to determine if we will need to inject thyroid replacement hormone (TRH). Should the TRH be necessary, it will be injected into a vein in your arm. At a later time, a small amount of I-123 will injected into the same vein. You will be required to return to the department approximately 2 hr after the I-123 injection when we will ask you to drink 300 ml water and then do a scan which will take approximately 45 minutes. You will be ask to return the following day for another scan . Again drink 300ml of water prior to the scan, which will take about 45mins.
In order to perform the scan, you will be asked to lie flat your back on a couch. The scan will be done using a gamma camera. This is a machine which detects the radiation emitted by you. It then produces an image representing the distribution of the I-123.
If you are pregnant, or you think you might be pregnant, you need to inform your doctor or the Nuclear Medicine staff before attending your appointment. In general, exposure to radiation during pregnancy should be kept to a minimum and it may be necessary to postpone your scan. Breast feeding should be stopped and not resumed.
Yes. However it is advisable not to have a pregnant woman or a small child with you. This is to avoid exposing them to unnecessary radiation. It is also preferable to avoid prolonged close contact (hugging a child / sitting with a child on your knee for more than half an hour) for the rest of the day.
Stop any medication containing iodine (cough medicine /hair dye etc).YOU MUST STOP TAKING YOUR LITHYRONINE(T3) EIGHT DAYS BEFORE THE SCAN. Please inform the department if you are sensitive to iodine.
The amount of radioactivity you receive in this study is strictly within the recommended national level. At this level, the benefit to you from a diagnosis of your condition outweighs the risk (negligible) of any harm associated with the radiation you will receive.
You may generally restart LITHYRONINE(T3) after the scan on the last day. You can eat, drink and take your medication as normal.
The Nuclear Medicine doctor will report on the study and the result will be sent to the doctor who requested the study. We are not able to give you any results- they will come from the doctor requesting the scan when you see him/her next