PREPARING MY PATIENT FOR F-18 FDG PET/CT STUDY
DO:
- Wear comfortable, loose fitting clothes, preferably without metal/zips.
- Patients should be kept warm; this improves our image quality.
- Patients should drink lots of plain, unflavoured water (before and after the study).
- Continue using their normal prescription (if it can be tolerated on an empty stomach) EXCEPT insulin. If the patient is diabetic please refer to the section lower down on “Preparing my diabetic patient for F-18 FDG PET/CT study” or contact the PET/CT Practice.
- It is always a good idea to advise patients to bring a list of their medications.
- If patients suffer from claustrophobia please indicate this on the request form.
- Patients should bring medication along that they may need e.g. pain-relief/anti-anxiety medication. If you think they may need a sedative/anti-anxiety medication for the investigation, please make sure they have someone that can drive them home after the investigation.
- Please inform us if the patient is pregnant, breastfeeding or has any allergies.
DO NOT:
- Do not do strenuous exercise 24 hours before the study.
- Eat or consume calories or anything with sugar 6 hours before the study (this includes sugar free gum, breath mints etc.). *
Diabetic patients should not use their rapid acting for 4 hours before and short-acting insulin 6 hours before the investigation – please refer to the section lower down on “Preparing my diabetic patient for F-18 FDG PET/CT study”.
Preparing my diabetic patient for F-18 FDG PET/CT study
Special instructions for diabetic patients:
It is very important that the patient’s blood sugar is well controlled prior to the study. Following a balanced diet for a few days before the study will assist in ensuring that their blood sugar level is within normal (or near-normal) levels on the day of the study.
If the blood sugar is higher than 10 mmol/l on the day of the study, the study will have to be cancelled.
Type I Diabetes/Insulin-dependent diabetics:
- The study will usually be booked during late morning.
- Patients should have a small breakfast no later than 06h00 and then take their insulin. The injection will be scheduled 6-hours after the insulin injection. Patients should not use rapid acting insulin for 4 hours before and short-acting insulin for 6 hours before the study time.
- After this they may only have plain, unflavoured water.
Type II Diabetes/patients on oral diabetic medication only:
- The study will usually be booked during late morning.
- The patient may have a small breakfast and take their diabetic medication at 05h00. The study will be scheduled 6-hours after their meal.
- After this the patient may only have plain, unflavoured water.
Preparing my patient for cardiac inflammation assessment:
- Purpose: Metabolic preparation prior to PET scan performed to identify inflammatory pathology of the heart, including cardiac sarcoidosis and cardiac infections, is very important. The aim of this diet is to suppress normal glucose usage by the heart muscle and force it to rather use energy from fat.
- Details: A high-fat, high-protein, very-low carbohydrate diet should be followed for ideally 3 days prior to the study followed by a prolonged period of not eating before the scan, for at least 12 hours but preferably 18 hours.
*Chareonthaitawee P, Beanlands RS, Chen W, et al. Joint SNMMI-ASNC Expert Consensus Document on the Role of 18F-FDG PET/CT in Cardiac Sarcoid Detection and Therapy Monitoring. J Nucl Med. 2017 Aug;58(8):1341-1353.
PREPARING MY PATIENT FOR GA-68 PSMA/F-18 PSMA/GA-68 DOTA PET/CT STUDY
DO:
- Ga-68 DOTA: Stop long-acting somatostatin such as Sandostatin/Lantreotide for 4 weeks prior to the PET/CT scan/book the scan just before the next dose, or stop short-acting somatostatin such as octreotide for at least 24 hours prior.
- The patient may have a meal before they come for the study, there is no need to fast.
- The patient should wear comfortable, loose fitting clothes, preferably without metal/zips.
- Drink lots of fluids (before and after the study).
- Continue using normal prescription medication other than Sandostatin.
- It is always a good idea to advise patients to bring a list of their medications.
- If patients suffer from claustrophobia please indicate this on the request form.
- Patients should bring medication along that they may need e.g. pain-relief/anti-anxiety medication. If you think they may need a sedative/anti-anxiety medication for the investigation, please make sure they have someone that can drive them home after the investigation.
- Please inform us if the patient is pregnant, breastfeeding or has any allergies.
PREPARING MY PATIENT FOR F-18 FDOPA PET/CT STUDY
DO:
- Please ensure that the patient fasts for at least 4 hours prior to this study, preferably not eating or drinking anything other than plain unflavoured water from midnight the previous evening.
- Diabetic patients, please ensure that their blood sugar level is not too low, too high is not a contra-indication to this study.
- The patient should wear comfortable, loose fitting clothes, preferably without metal/zips.
- It is always a good idea to advise patients to bring a list of their medications.
- If patients suffer from claustrophobia please indicate this on the request form.
- Patients should bring medication along that they may need e.g. pain-relief/anti-anxiety medication. If you think they may need a sedative/anti-anxiety medication for the investigation, please make sure they have someone that can drive them home after the investigation.
- Please inform us if the patient is pregnant, breastfeeding or has any allergies.
- Movement disorders: Certain medications need to be withheld for a duration of time, these are only neurological/psychiatric medications and include:
- Talcopone (Tasmar®) at least 15 hours, Entacapone (Comtan®Stalevo®) at least 15 hours and Reserpine (Reserpine®Rinerdin®) 20 days.
