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Tagged Red Blood Cell ScanAka: Tagged Red Cell Scan, Radionuclide Red Cell Scan

Indications
1. Acute Gastrointestinal Bleeding without source
2. Often used to preselect patients for angiography
Description
1. Radionuclide scan with Technetium 99m-labeled red cells
2. Labeled Red Blood Cells circulate for 48 hours
3. Identifies sites of GI Bleeding via gamma camera scan
4. Detects bleeding down to rates as low as 0.1 ml/min
Protocol
1. Scan should be verified by second method
  1. Angiography (most commonly follows tagged scan)
  2. Endoscopy
  3. Surgery
2. Scan localization is 78% accurate when verified
3. Do not base bowel resection solely on tagged cell scan
  1. Results frequently in recurrent bleeding (42%)
  2. Hunter (1990) Am J Surg 159:504
Efficacy
1. Identifies Lower GI Bleed site in 26-78% of cases
2. Most sensitive early in scanning (first 2 hours)
3. Positive scan predicts higher morbidity and mortality

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This page was written by Scott Moses, MD. This page was last revised before 5/10/08, prior to consistent tracking of revision date. This page was last published on 5/10/2008. Please send comments and questions to the editor. Contact information may be found on the page About the Family Practice Notebook. These pages are best viewed with Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0.