How is a PET scan performed?

How is a PET scan performed?

Hossein Jadvar (Doctor) gives expert video advice on: How does a PET scan work?; How should I prepare for a PET scan?; Why do I have to fast before a PET scan? and more...

When the patient arrives to the clinic here, they are interviewed, and after the interview, making sure that it is appropriate for the study to be done and making sure the patient was prepared appropriately by fasting 46 hours before the injection of FDG, then the tracer, which in this case is the FDG, is administered intravenously. Then the patient waits anywhere between 30 minutes to an hour after the administration of the FDG for the FDG to be distributed in the body. Then somewhere between 45 to 60 minutes after the administration, the patient is positioned in the PET scanner and the technology starts actually acquiring images. The images, depending upon how or what part of the body, or the whole body, you're doing, take anywhere between 30 minutes to about 45 minutes for the entire study to be done. Therefore, that's basically the routine that the patient can expect to go through for a PET scan.