Gallium Scan

Test Overview

A gallium scan is a nuclear medicine test that can check for problem areas in certain tissues in your body.

A radioactive tracer (tracer) called gallium citrate is injected into a vein in your arm. It moves through your bloodstream and into certain tissues. These tissues include your bones, liver, and intestine, and areas that are inflamed or have a buildup of white blood cells. After the tracer builds up in your body, a special camera takes pictures. The pictures show the areas where the amount of tracer is higher than normal. These areas are called hot spots.

It often takes the tracer a few days to build up. So the pictures (scans) are usually taken at 2 days and again at 3 days after you get the tracer. The tracer stays in you until your body gets rids of it through urine or stool (feces).