Isotope scan for uti???

[miniandme]

My daughter had a serious uti back in april and had 2 sets of antibiotics for it,she has had an ultrasound scan which came back clear but seen the consultant on friday and has to have an istope scan ?? to check for damage,i thought the ultrasound done that?? does anyone know what this involves and why they are doing this too?

I had this done but it was 15 years ago so I am sure things have changed since. I was given an injection and then had to come back for the scan in a few hours. They told me there was some scarring to both kidneys.

The thing is there is absolutely nothing you can do with this information.

I've been warned my DD might need this too. I think it's where a dye is injected so the path of fluids through the kidneys can be checked.

ultrasound scan checks for blockage in the kidneys, but isn't sensitive enough to show much else- will show if kidneys are present, and their size.

Isotope scan (DMSA scan) will check for function- how well kidneys excrete the isotope, and if there are any bits of the kidneys that aren't working.

It's a routine part of the investigation of UTI in girls (and boys, come to that).

Here is some information about isotope scans(nuclear medicine) in general.

My daughter had this done a few years back when she was a baby. She was given an injection of the dye into her hand. Then we had to wait around for a while. Cant quite remember but I think it was probably a couple of hours. Then they just took loads of pictures of her kidneys from all different angles. The hardest bit was getting her to stay still enough but they had a really good play specialist blowing bubbles at her and all sorts. Dont know if other hospitals would do that but I was very impressed. She was fine throughout the whole thing. Hope all goes well with your dd.

Thank you all for your info ,so it seems its not just a 20 minute thing then like the ultrasound.mmmm will need to think of some strategies to keep her going adn also care for the boys too then when she goe sin-great !!

Only just seen this.

My ds2 had this type of scan done twice in the space of 6 months for recurrent UTI's. Like a previous poster said, the dye is injected into the back of the hand. We found the whole process took about 2 1/2 hours, 30 minutes for the magic cream to work, just a few minutes for the dye to be injected. The we could leave the hospital for 1 1/2 hours. The scan itself takes 20 to 30 minutes. Depending on how old the child in question is, depends on whether they sit up in a special chair, or lie on the scanner bed. If they can sit up, they have a tv/video in the room that they just roll up to the child, so they can watch a film quietly while the scan if going on.

All in all, a pretty painless procedure. It just seesm like a long day but time in hospital is pretty minimal.

I work in nuclear medine
It sounds like it is a DMSA scan that has been requested.
DMSA is a pharmaceutical that is labelled with some gamma radiation to produce a tracer which goes to the kidney.The dmsa scan gives information about the blood flow to the kidneys,whether there is any areas of scarring (that can occur with UTI)and the overall fuction of the kidneys.
If scarring is found quite often a repeat scan is requested to see if if it has become worse or if it has resolved.
The tracer is injected into a vein and couple of hours later images are taken of the kidneys.
There is alo another test called a renogram which looks at how well the kidneys are draining and the overall function but this is done in a slightly diffeent way.
Hope this helps.