Special instructions for diabetic patients:
It is very important that your blood sugar is well controlled before the study. Following a balanced diet for a few days before the study will assist in ensuring that your blood sugar level is within normal (or near-normal) levels on the day of the study.
If your blood sugar is higher than 12 mmol/l on the day of the study, the study will have to be cancelled.
Type I Diabetes/Insulin-dependent diabetics:
- Your study will usually be booked during late morning.
- Please have a small breakfast no later than 06h00 and then take your insulin. Your injection will be scheduled 6-hours after the insulin injection. You should not use rapid acting insulin for 4 hours before and short-acting insulin for 6 hours before the study time.
- After this you may only have plain, unflavoured water.
Type II Diabetes/patients on oral diabetic medication only:
- Your study will usually be booked during late morning.
- You may have a small breakfast and take your diabetic medication at 05h00. Your study will be scheduled 6-hours after your meal.
- After this you may only have plain, unflavoured water.
Preparing 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.