What Does a Thyroid Scan and Uptake Entail?
On the first day, you will be asked to swallow a small amount of radioactive iodine in a capsule. This visit should take about fifteen minutes. About six hours later you will return for the first measurement of uptake and the scan which will take about fifteen minutes. The next day, you will return for the remainder of the uptake procedures, which will take 15 to 30 minutes. For the scan, you will lie on your back on an imaging table with the camera positioned above you. We will take several images of your thyroid. Each image takes five or ten minutes. Then, a nuclear medicine physician may examine your gland. We may take additional images to look at a certain part of your gland in detail. The imaging procedure will take about 45 minutes. The uptake procedure measures the absorption of the radioactive iodine by your thyroid gland. As you sit comfortably in a chair, a thyroid probe will be positioned some inches from you neck, and several counts will be recorded. This will take ten or f
