Paediatric nuclear medicine

You, or someone you know, may need a nuclear medicine scan. It is a special type of scan that lets the doctors see how well something is working in your body. You may need one if you are having trouble with kidneys, bowel, or bone.  Your doctor will tell you exactly what type of scan you need, such as:

• DMSA (kidneys)
• MAG3 (kidneys)
• Meckel’s (bowel)
• Bone scan (bone)

The scan works by using something called gamma radiation, which is like a special medicine. It can go to the part of your body that the doctor wants to investigate.

Our special gamma camera will take pictures of the area that we have given the special medicine to, for example the kidneys. These pictures will help the doctor to decide how they can help you.

The scan takes around 30 minutes. Sometimes we give you the special medicine three hours before the scan.

Our service is open to all our paediatric patients with a referral. You may have the referral from a paediatric consultant or one of their specialist team.

The nuclear medicine team won an award in May 2024 in the category of Innovative Team of the Year at the British Nuclear Medicine Society (BNMS) awards. The ceremony, held in Belfast, saw the team win for the creation of Walter’s Adventures. Read more in our news section by clicking here (opens in new tab)