Bone scan

A bone scan test involves having an injection of a minute dose of radioactive material into a vein. The patient then has to wait for a couple of hours while this is taken up in the bones.

They then lie on a bed beneath a large camera which takes special pictures of the bones. This usually only takes a few minutes.

The dose of radio-active material used in the test is very small and will virtually have disappeared from the body within twenty four hours of the injection.

This means there are no side-effects from the injection. For a few hours, however, there will be a small dose of radiation in the patient's tissues.

Although the risks from this are negligible, to be absolutely safe, it is often recommended that they don't come into close contact with very young children or pregnant women for twenty four hours after the injection.

A further routine precaution is that bone scans are not done if a woman is pregnant.