A feeling of tightness, tachycardia, non-respiratory chest-wall pain or sudden shortness of breath can be symptoms of a previous pulmonary infarction. An uncomplicated lung perfusion scintigram can quickly determine whether there is a risk of a pulmonary infarction or whether one has already occurred.
After a small quantity of a radioactive substance has been injected into an arm vein, the imaging of the lungs is carried out while the patient is in a lying position.
No, you do not need to have an empty stomach for this examination.
The entire examination only takes around ten minutes.
The exposure to radiation is 1.1 mSv. In comparison, natural exposure to radiation in Austria is around 2.4 to 16 mSv per year. If you go skiing for a week in spring, for example, you will have a similarly high level of radiation exposure as during a lung scintigraphy examination.