San Luis Rey Equine Hospital - Nuclear Scintigraphy


	Commonly known as "bone scanning", nuclear scintigraphy is an imaging technique allowing changes in metabolic activity of soft tissue or bone to be visualized. It is one of the most commonly performed nuclear medicine procedures and especially useful in detecting bone inflammation when a lameness is difficult to diagnose. It is highly sensitive for detecting early disease, allows evaluation of the entire skeleton or a specific region, and the procedure is done without anesthesia. A small amount of radioisotope pharmaceuticals are injected into the jugular vein through a catheter. These drugs become concentrated where bone is actively remodeling or undergoing change and identifies the suspected areas of injury. These "hot spots" are imaged for evaluation. We are proud to be one of the few private equine hospitals in the country to be able to offer this procedure, performing approximately 200 scans yearly.