PEt Scan
hi everyone, I have a PET Scan on Thursday with results late Thursday afternoon, anyone else had a PET scan? They tell me I have to fast from midnight
Forum Discussion
I had one a couple of years ago. You do need to fast.
I'm digging around in my brain a bit here, but as I understand it, the contrast injection you get is a combo of some radioactive stuff and a special sugar solution. Apparently tumours (and in my case a couple of spots where I had a really nasty chest infection) take up the sugar solution--and consequently the contrast-- faster than other tissue which is why they 'pop' as green dots on the scan.
That's a very simplistic explanation. It has also played in to the nonsense that sugar feeds cancer. Cancer feeds on the same thing as everything else, it just does it faster than other tissue. The fasting is needed to bring your blood glucose right down before the scan. I'm happy to be corrected if I've got that all arse about.
I'm digging around in my brain a bit here, but as I understand it, the contrast injection you get is a combo of some radioactive stuff and a special sugar solution. Apparently tumours (and in my case a couple of spots where I had a really nasty chest infection) take up the sugar solution--and consequently the contrast-- faster than other tissue which is why they 'pop' as green dots on the scan.
That's a very simplistic explanation. It has also played in to the nonsense that sugar feeds cancer. Cancer feeds on the same thing as everything else, it just does it faster than other tissue. The fasting is needed to bring your blood glucose right down before the scan. I'm happy to be corrected if I've got that all arse about.