A gallium scan is a Reference nuclear medicine test. A nuclear
medicine test uses a special camera to take pictures of specific
tissues in the body after a radioactive tracer (radionuclide or
radioisotope) makes them visible. Each type of tissue that may
be scanned (including bones, organs, glands, and blood vessels)
uses a different radioactive compound as a tracer. The
radioactivity of a tracer decreases over a period of hours,
days, or weeks. The tracer stays in the body until it is
eliminated as waste, usually in the urine or stool (feces).
During a gallium scan, the tracer (radioactive gallium citrate)
is injected into a vein in the arm. It travels through the
bloodstream and into the body's tissues, primarily the bones,
liver, intestine, and areas of tissue where inflammation or a
buildup of Reference white blood cells (WBCs) Opens New Window
is present. It often takes the tracer a few days to build up in
these areas, so in most cases a scan is done at 2 days and again
at 3 days after the tracer is inje