Our nuclear medicine departments have a range of equipment which help us to diagnose heart and lung conditions more quickly. As well as high-tech
machines, we spread our expertise, care and attention across two sites: Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals.
The nuclear scan
A nuclear scan is a way of taking images of your body. Before we can take these images, we need to give you an injection, called a tracer. Tracers contain a small amount of radioactivity in them which allows us to highlight the parts of the body we need to see in more detail.
Risks
Most medical procedures and tests have some level of risk, but it's important to know that we wouldn't recommend a procedure/test if we the benefits didn't outweigh any potential risks to your health.
Particular risk
Female patients
If you are pregnant, or think you might be, please tell us before your scan. Even small amounts of radiation can harm unborn babies.
If you are breastfeeding, you can still have the scan but please contact us for advice before you come in.
Types of scans and tests
At Harefield Hospital, we use state-of-the-art equipment to carry out a number of tests and scans which look at the lungs, heart and other parts of the body to see if they are functioning properly. These include:
Heart
Lung
Other areas
- bone densitometry (DEXA) scan
- bone scan (bone scintigraphy)
- gastric emptying scan
- MAG3 renogram (kidney scan)
- thyroid scan
- white cell scan
The results
Your scan results will be interpreted by an experienced nuclear medicine physician and will be sent to your referring specialist. You can consult your specialist doctor to plan further treatment.
Nuclear medicine department
A range of healthcare professionals look after you when you come to Harefield Hospital for a scan or test. These include:
- Professor Richard Underwood, professor of cardiac imaging
- Dr Georgia Keramida, joint head of department
- Rommel Manlapig, superintendent radiographer
- Naeema Ifthikar, department office manager
Getting to Harefield
Find out how to get to us at Harefield. Once there, you'll find the nuclear medicine department in the ANZAC Centre. When you arrive, it is 30 metres straight ahead of you. Here, you can report to a reception window in the nuclear medicine waiting area, but if you do need any help, just ask at main reception.
Types of scans and tests
At Royal Brompton, we use state-of-the-art equipment to carry out a number of tests and scans which look at the lungs, heart and other parts of the body to see if they are functioning properly. These include:
Heart
- cardiac amyloidosis - 99mTc-DPD scan
- I123 MIBG cardiac scan
- myocardial perfusion scan
- paediatric lung scan
Lung
Other areas
- bone densitometry (DEXA) scan
- bone scan (bone scintigraphy)
- breast sentinel node scan
- gastric emptying scan
- gastro-oesophageal reflux (milk) scan
- white cell scan
- MAG3 renogram (kidney scan)
- thyroid scan
You may be invited for any type of test but they can all be done on an outpatient basis, so you don't need to stay overnight. The length of the test can vary between 1-4 hours, depending on the test.
The results
Your scan results will be interpreted by an experienced nuclear medicine physician and will be sent to your referring specialist. You can consult your specialist doctor to plan further treatment.
Nuclear medicine department
A range of healthcare professionals look after you when you come to Royal Brompton Hospital for a scan or test. These include:
- Dr Kshama Wechalekar, consultant nuclear physician, head of department
- Professor Richard Underwood, professor of cardiac imaging
- Tiago Sousa, superintendent technologist
- Samantha Cliffe, lead clinical nurse specialist
- Lucy Hossen, lead physicist
- Bill Hartigan, office manager
Getting to Royal Brompton
Find out how to get to us at Royal Brompton.
When you reach the main hospital reception in the Sydney Street building, follow the signs to the lifts. Go up to Level 3 in the lift or stairs and then follow the signs to the nuclear medicine department.
If you need help, ask at the hospital reception desk. The receptionist can arrange for a porter to help you get to the department.
Patient transport
If for medical reasons you need to arrange transport to come to the hospital, please contact your GP. They can arrange this by referring you to our hospital transport department on 020 7351 8012.
Nuclear medicine research
We perform more than 5,000 studies in the fields of nuclear cardiology and myocardial perfusion imaging, and more. Find out more about our research.
You can refer patients to Royal Brompton Hospital or Harefield Hospital by following the process below. We offer appointments with a medical referral for a wide range of tests and scans at both of our sites.
Internal referrers
All nuclear medicine investigations must be requested via ICE e-requesting. There are separate tabs for Royal Brompton Hospital and Harefield Hospital on ICE. Please give us as much relevant information as you can on the request form, this will help us to give you more useful reports. Please do not forget to tell us how urgent the test is by ticking the relevant priority box.
If you have any questions about submitting a request, please contact us on one of the numbers below:
- Royal Brompton Hospital (ext. 88666)
- Harefield Hospital (ext. 85880)
External referrers
Doctors can submit a patient referral directly to the nuclear medicine department via email or post (see below for more information on how to do this). On receipt of the referral we will contact the patient to arrange an appointment. Please note, we require a medical doctor to sign the letter for all diagnostic tests, as per IR(MER) regulations for all tests that involve radiation. Please click here to access the referral criteria for the department of nuclear medicine at Royal Brompton Hospital
Once the patient has accepted their appointment, a letter or an email with details of the appointment is sent to them. This will include a patient information leaflet which will explain the procedure and what they may need to do to prepare for a test or scan.
Contact us to refer a patient
By email
Doctors can submit a patient referral via e-mail. This is the recommended method of referring a patient to us. E-mail referrals will only be accepted if they are sent from the referring doctor’s nhs.net account to our nhs.net account shown below. We recommend referrers to use our request form, to which they can attach a signed clinic letter, should they choose to.
Request form for Royal Brompton Hospital
Request form for Harefield Hospital
If providing a typed letter of referral, referrers must provide the following details of the referred patient:
- Name, date of birth, address and NHS number
- Telephone number and email
- Relevant clinical details, medication etc.
- Type of test needed
- Signature of the doctor (scanned and emailed)
Patient referrals for Royal Brompton Hospital should be emailed to: rbh-tr.rbhnmreferrals@nhs.net
Patient referrals for Harefield Hospital should be emailed to: rbh-tr.nuclearmedicinereferrals@nhs.net
By post
Referral letters sent by post must also include the following details of the referred patient:
- Name, date of birth, address and NHS number
- Telephone number and email
- Relevant clinical details, medication etc.
- Type of test needed
- Signature of the doctor
Referral letters must also state the urgency of the investigation e.g. urgent, within six months etc. and include any clinic letters that may be relevant.
Referral letters for Royal Brompton Hospital should be addressed to:
Dr Kshama Wechalekar
Department of Nuclear medicine
Royal Brompton Hospital
Sydney street, London
SW3 6NP
Referral letters for Harefield Hospital should be addressed to:
Prof. Richard Underwood or Dr. Georgia Keramida
Department of Nuclear Medicine
Harefield Hospital
Ground Floor Anzac Centre Building
Hill End Road, Uxbridge
UB9 6JH
Contact us
| Royal Brompton Hospital | Harefield Hospital | |
| Phone | +44 (0)20 7351 8666/9 | +44 (0)1895828880 |
| rbh-tr.rbhnmreferrals@nhs.net | rbh-tr.nuclearmedicinereferrals@nhs.net | |
| Address | Department of Nuclear medicine, RBH, Sydney street, SW3 6NP | Department of Nuclear Medicine, Harefield Hospital, Ground Floor Anzac Centre Building, Hill End Road, Harefield, UB9 6JH |