Are thyroid scans toxic and need to be isolated?

The article is professionally consulted by Master, Doctor Nguyen Quang Duc - Doctor of Nuclear Medicine - Department of Diagnostic Imaging and Nuclear Medicine - Vinmec Times City International General Hospital

Thyroid scintigraphy is a method of imaging the thyroid gland with radioisotopes, which is effective in diagnosing some thyroid diseases such as thyroid cancer, thyroid nodules. General scintigraphy and thyroid scintigraphy are methods of using radioactive energy, so care should be taken during the implementation to minimize the possibility of radioactive contamination to the patient and the operator.

The thyroid is a small gland located in the anterior neck region, above the trachea, and can be felt with the hand. The thyroid gland plays an extremely important role in the body that is to produce hormones necessary for normal metabolism in the body, so this is a gland that directly affects metabolism. substances occurring in the human body.
When the thyroid gland has abnormalities, thyroid scan is considered one of the measures to help survey the thyroid gland at this time. This method is done by allowing the patient's body to absorb a small amount of radioactive material inside to record images of the thyroid gland, helping to assess whether the thyroid's functioning status has changed or any abnormalities. Usually not, from there have the earliest treatment for the patient.
More specifically, scintigraphy uses a radioisotope which is a chemical that emits gamma rays that is inserted into the patient's body to mark normal and abnormal locations in a certain organ tissue. For thyroid scintigraphy, the radioactive isotope of choice is radioactive iodine, because this is a specific chemical for thyroid tissue, when injected into the patient's body through a vein, the following results will be obtained. Thyroid cells absorb very quickly.
When there are many normal cells, the ability to absorb radioactive iodine will be higher, on the contrary, if there are damaged parts, the ability to absorb radioactive material is also significantly reduced. After entering the patient's body, the radioactive substance will emit gamma rays and be recorded by the gamma detector, thereby converting and processing the received information and producing different recorded results. with each region of the normal or damaged thyroid gland.

In fact, thyroid scans usually do not leave complications or cause any side effects to the patient's body. Because radioactive substances have natural decay, after a certain time, the amount of radioactive material injected into the patient's body will automatically be eliminated through feces, urine or spontaneously decay. To ensure the highest safety, clean and flush all patient waste after using the toilet to avoid radioactive material exposure. Although there is no need to isolate when taking thyroid scans, special attention should be paid to some subjects sensitive to radioactive isotopes such as pregnant women, nursing mothers, people allergic to radioactive substances. ...
Although there is little risk of directly affecting the patient's life, thyroid scan is also a technique that uses radioactive substances, so it is important to keep clean before and after the procedure. procedures, especially for those subjects that are contraindicated with radiography so as not to have any radioactive contamination.

To be able to detect thyroid diseases, thyroid scintigraphy plays an extremely important role in the diagnosis. Currently, Vinmec International General Hospital has used the SPECT/CT Discovery NM/CT 670 Pro system, with the most modern 16-sequence CT technology of the world's leading medical equipment company GE Healthcare (USA), helping to for high quality images, accurate assessment of thyroid pathology.
Thanks to good facilities and qualified staff, the hospital has now successfully cured and treated many thyroid patients, bringing them good health and good health. stable quality of life.