A SPECT scan is used to assess the function of tissues or organs in your body to identify disease.

A CT
scan provides your doctor with high resolution images of structures in your body. In other words,
SPECT assesses Physiology and CT assesses anatomy. Today, generally a SPECT scan is performed
with the images from the two different types of scans are captured during one session using a hybrid
scanner and the images are combined. Each piece of information is important but when combined
they are even more useful. A SPECT scan is undertaken in two parts, the administration of the tracer
and then the scan that shows how the tracer behaves in your body. A nuclear medicine is generally
administered through an intravenous injection that can also be inhaled, swallowed, or injected in the
skin. What study you have will decide how the tracer is administered and whether it is done lying
down on the scanner or elsewhere in a chair. The injected nuclear medicine gets taken up and
concentrates in the part of the body under investigation. Some diseases cause increased function
some cause decreased function and some cause changes in function all of which can be imaged on
the scanner. virtually all organs and tissues can be investigated using nuclear medicine. The most
common procedures include the bone to detect and assess changes in bone function associated with
cancer, trauma, and metabolic changes and many other diseases . The function of the heart can be
evaluated by examining blood moving through the heart or imaging the blood flow and movement
of the heart muscle itself to diagnose a variety of diseases. Nuclear medicine can also be used to
study lung, kidney , thyroid brain and many other organs and tissues in the body and importantly to
investigate cancer. Because somebody functions are fast, and some are slower the time between
administration of the tracer and the scan can vary from minutes to hours . Some people may even
be required to come back on multiple days. For diagnostic scans the nuclear medicine is radioactive
and emits gamma rays that can be detected by the scanner. The SPECT machine has two gamma
cameras that detect gamma rays and produces a map of how the tracer is behaving. These detectors
rotate around the body taking images every few degrees allowing images to be reconstructed in
three dimensions. The spec scan can take 10 to 20 minutes and then the CT scan takes less than a
minute. The scan collects important information that is processed by a computer. This information is
then carefully reviewed by a specialist nuclear medicine physician to produce a report for your
doctor . Your doctor will use the information to help determine how to manage your specific health
condition or assess the response to current management