Lung scintigraphy: indications and reviews about the procedure

In our age of high technology, medicine is trying to keep up with the times and is developing new ways of examining the human body. The main criteria are high informativeness, safety, ease of use and low cost. One such method is lung scintigraphy. Indications for this procedure are quite wide, so it is used by both therapists and surgeons. This allows you to determine the tactics of treatment and accurately localize the problem area.

Lung scintigraphy: what is it?

Scintigraphy is a method of radiation diagnosis, used to assess the function of human organs and tissues. It involves introducing into the circulatory system radioactive isotopes and obtaining an image by recording the radiation that they emit. The procedure itself is carried out using specific equipment that can capture radiation and visualize it.

Lung scintigraphy is performed for the study of the circulatory system of the lungs and detection of ventilation disorders. As a rule, eventually find thrombi or emboli, which disrupt the normal outflow of blood. During the procedure, two methods of assessing the condition of the organ can be used, depending on what tasks are assigned to the physician:

- ventilation;
- perfusion.

Ventilation and perfusion scintigraphy

Ventilating lung scintigraphy is needed to assess respiratory function, it shows the flow of air into the respiratory system. For this, the patient is offered to inhale an aerosol that contains radioisotopes, and then, with the help of a gamma camera, observe their progress in the body. Cold areas indicate that the aerosol did not enter there. The doctor can assume the possible causes of this phenomenon: stenosis, swelling, the presence of fluid or atelectasis.

Perfusion lung scintigraphy with PE and other circulatory diseases allows visualizing lung vessels and seeing the flow of blood from the right ventricle through the pulmonary arteries. Before scanning, the patient is administered intravenously "Technetium-99", which breaks down into smaller isotopes, and gamma-camera registers radiation from this process. If there is a site in the body where the radioactive substance has not arrived, then it is most likely that the lumen of the vessel is blocked by an embolus or thrombus.

Indications for the procedure

When is scintigraphy prescribed? Indications - deep vein thrombophlebitis of the lower extremities, diagnosis of pulmonary embolism and pulmonary arterial thromboembolism and dynamic observation of its treatment, revealing the causes of pulmonary hypertension and much more. In addition to vascular problems, scintigraphy can determine the functional state of the lungs before a long operation, check the presence of interstitial lung diseases, as well as the presence of congenital diseases of the lungs and heart. Therapists prescribe lung scintigraphy to exclude or confirm chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and heart failure, emphysema, lung infarction, and oncological diseases.

Contraindications

Lung scintigraphy does not require any specific preparation from the patient, unlike most invasive procedures, such as epinephrine echocardiography or bronchoscopy.

But before the procedure it is necessary to conduct allergic tests with the radioactive material that will be used in the study. This is necessary in order to avoid an attack of anaphylaxis at the time the patient is inside the gamma camera. It is much more difficult to stop an allergic reaction than to prevent it.

If a woman is examined, she should be examined by a gynecologist in order to rule out a possible pregnancy, or inform the doctor that the baby is breastfed, since the radioisotopes will get into all the fluids, including milk.

It is highly discouraged to take barium or bismuth preparations less than four hours before the procedure, as this may affect the results of the study.

Scintigraphy process

According to reviews, lung scintigraphy takes only twenty minutes. In order to perform a perfusion study, the patient is asked to assume an upright position (the image will be better). The patient is injected intravenously with a drug that contains radioactive isotopes, and immediately begins scanning to see the progress of the particles in the blood. They are so small that they will fall even into the narrowest vessels.

When performing ventilation scintigraphy, the patient inhales the aerosol until the balance of gases is established in the lungs. Radioactive particles begin to disintegrate, and the camera can catch radiation from those areas where the gas has got to. If, after these two methods, there was a site where there is a perfusion defect, but ventilation remained normal, then most likely the patient has pulmonary embolism.

Complications

If a person does not have an allergy to isotope markers, then he will experience pain and discomfort only when piercing the skin. In the process of research, the patient's state of health should be satisfactory. Nausea, headache, dizziness are abnormalities, which it is better to immediately inform the doctor.

Do not be afraid of radioactive radiation, because it is several times smaller than the equivalent during computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging. Of course, one can not say that the research is completely safe, but scientists are working on these issues to this day.

The testimonies testify: sometimes it happens that the results of lung scintigraphy can be interpreted from different points of view. In such cases, angiopulmonography is necessary to confirm the diagnosis. Under the control of computed tomography in the bloodstream to the patient (usually after a catheterization of the pulmonary artery), a contrast medium is introduced that moves along the vessels of the lungs, filling all available space. Then a series of pictures of the lungs is made in the dynamics. If the doctor notices a site where there is no vascular pattern, then, most likely, that's where embolus is located.

надежным методом диагностики. Patients say that lung scintigraphy is an informative, painless and reliable method of diagnosis.