Octreotide Scan
Your physician has requested that you have an Indium Octreotide scan. This is a safe, simple, non-invasive way to evaluate the tissues of your body for the presence of neuroendocrine tumors. Indium-111 is a radioactive element. The radioactivity associated with the injection of Indium is negligible. The injection will not make you feel dizzy, nauseated, hot or cold. Octreotide is a polypeptide, which targets somatostatin receptor rich tissues in your body. Several tumors will express a large amount of somatostatin receptors. We can use Indium Octreotide to localize and image many of these tumors.
Approximate exam time: 1 hour the first day and 3 hours on the following days.
To outline our requirements, you will:
- After registration report to Medical Imaging.
- You will be escorted to Nuclear Medicine and a short history will be taken.
- The Indium Octreotide will be administered through a vein in your arm.
- Four hours after your injection you will return and images of your body will be obtained.
- For two days following your injection you will be given a time to return for a Whole Body Scan and Spect Imaging.
- On the day(s) of the scan(s), several images will be obtained. Each day you return you can expect to be in the Nuclear Medicine Department for approximately 3 hours.
- The Radiologist will review the images before you are released from the department.
- Additional images may be necessary at the discretion of the Radiologist on the following days.
- Total study time may take several hours per day of imaging.
- Once the imaging is complete you will be released from the radiology department.
- A Radiologist will read the test and the results will be sent to the ordering physician.
Note: Inpatients will be escorted to Nuclear Medicine.