What you can expect

A bone scan is a nuclear imaging procedure. In nuclear imaging, tiny amounts of radioactive materials (tracers) are injected into a vein and taken up in varying amounts at different sites in the body.

Areas of the body where cells and tissues are repairing themselves most actively take up the largest amounts of tracer. Nuclear images highlight these areas, suggesting the presence of abnormalities associated with disease or injury.

A bone scan procedure includes both an injection and the actual scan.

The injection

Tracers will be injected into a vein in your arm. The amount of time between the injection and scan varies, depending on the reason your doctor has ordered the scan.

Some images may be taken immediately after the injection. But the main images are taken two to four hours later to allow the tracer to circulate and be absorbed by your bones. Your doctor may recommend that you drink several glasses of water while you wait.

The scan

You'll be asked to lie still on a table while an arm-like device supporting a tracer-sensitive camera passes back and forth over your body. The scan itself can take up to an hour. The procedure is painless.

Your doctor might order a three-phase bone scan, which includes a series of images taken at different times. A number of images are taken as the tracer is injected, then shortly after the injection, and again three to five hours after the injection.

To better see some bones in your body, your doctor might order additional imaging called single-photon emission computerized tomography (SPECT). This imaging can help with conditions that are especially deep in your bone or in places that are difficult to see. During a SPECT scan, the camera rotates around your body, taking images as it rotates.

After the test

A bone scan generally has no side effects, and no follow-up care is needed. The radioactivity from the tracers is usually completely eliminated two days after the scan.