X-rays are mild doses of radiation used to create images of your bones that allows our Board Certified Radiologists to evaluate your skeletal system and gastrointestinal tract.
How Long Will It Take?
Depending on the number of pictures required, x-rays generally take about 15 minutes, while most fluoroscopy and barium studies typically take about 30 minutes to complete with a few exceptions.
- Small Bowel (SBFT) can take approximately 4 hours to complete since the barium that you drink has to reach the end of your small bowel.
- Colon (Barium Enema/ BE) takes about an hour.
- (IVP) Intravenous Pyelogram is approximately an hour.
What Does an X-ray show?
X-rays are the oldest form of medical imaging and are the fastest and easiest way for a physician to diagnose a broken bone and track healing. X-rays also allow us to monitor degenerative diseases such as arthritis and detect advanced forms of bone cancer.
Fluoroscopy is low-dose x-ray in motion. It captures the body’s organs functioning.
The amount of radiation used during a fluoroscopy exam is minimal and coned down to the area of interest.
Preparing for your X-ray or Fluoroscopy procedure
- There is no prep for a standard X-ray.
- Certain fluoroscopic procedures like barium studies and IVPs require the patient to be NPO, which means nothing to eat or drink after midnight the night before your scheduled appointment. We reserve morning time slots for our NPO patients, especially if they are diabetic. Bring any prescription medicine with you to take at the completion of the examination. Insulin shots are fine to take at your routine time at home. NPO simply means nothing by mouth, so it is beneficial not to have undigested pills in your system.
Adult
Barium Swallow, Upper GI, Small Bowel Preparation
Pediatric
IVP Preparation. Please see contrast agents link on the left.
- Arthograms and joint injections simply require you to be off of blood thinners for 3 days prior to your appointment. Specifically if you are taking Plavix, you should not take it for 5 days prior to your exam.
Arthogram & Joint Injection Preparation
- Myelograms require a very specialized patient preparation. Your doctor will give you detailed instructions to better prepare you for this exam. It would also be helpful for you to bring with you a list of current medications and drug allergies.
- X-rays are potentially harmful to a developing fetus, so please inform your doctor and the technologist if you think you may be pregnant.
What to expect?
- Our staff may ask you to change into a gown and to remove any jewelry, eyeglasses or other metal objects which can obscure the area of interest. It is best to leave all valuables safely locked in your vehicle.
- You will be positioned either on a table or in a standing position.
- X-rays themselves are painless. You will be asked to hold very still and possibly to hold your breath just long enough for the x-ray to be taken.
After the Procedure
- After the examination is completed, the images are stored in a computer system called PACS (Picture Archiving & Communications System). We typically have the patient wait until all images are reviewed to make certain no additional imaging is needed. Most referring doctors can access these images online and review them with you in their office.
- Our Board Certified Radiologist will review your images and have the results faxed to your referring physician promptly.
- You may obtain a copy of your results from your referring physician. Only the patient can physically acquire them from our Imaging Center after showing proof of identity. This is in effort to protect not only your privacy but to reduce medical identity theft.
