Head • Chest • Larynx

Nothing to eat or drink 4 hours prior to the examination

Abdomen • Pelvis

YOU SHOULD HAVE NO BARIUM STUDIES FOR AT LEAST 3 DAYS BEFORE THIS EXAMINATION.

After scheduling your appointment, you may obtain the REDI-CAT prep at your physician's office or at one of our 3 imaging centers during the following hours:
Monday - Thursday 7:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Friday 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.(or until 8pm at our Mt Laurel office)
Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.(Mt Laurel only)

Drink all the REDI-CAT ninety (90) minutes prior to your scheduled exam time. As an option you can arrive on the same day as your exam, 90 minutes prior to your appointment to obtain and drink the REDI-CAT.

NOTHING TO EAT OR DRINK 4 HOURS PRIOR TO THE EXAMINATION.

Other examinations

No preparation

**If absolutly necessary, Daily Medications may be taken with a small amount of water before test.

INFORMATION REGARDING CONTRAST AGENTS AND NURSING MOTHERS (BREASTFEEDING)

The examination you are about to undergo requires the use of a contrast agent that contains iodine and is injected intravenously. A very small amount of this agent will be secreted in breast milk. The safety of this contrast agent as it relates to nursing infants has been investigated and reviewed by the American College of Radiology (ACR), which is medical organization that among many other things, issues guidelines and recommendations regarding the safe practice of radiological exams for the general public.

What the ACR has determined are the following:

• Half the amount of contrast agent is cleared from the bloodstream within 2 hours. Clearance of the contrast agent from the the body is virtually completed by 24 hours.
• Less than 1% of the injected contrast will make its way into breast milk. Of the amount consumed by a nursing child, less than 1% will be absorbed by the gut. This means that the child will absorb less than 0.01% (or 1/10,000th) of the total amount of contrast that is injected into the nursing mother.
• On certain occasions, small children and infants will themselves undergo CT scans requiring the intravenous injection of this contrast agent. The small amount consumed through breast milk is less than 1% of the typical amount injected directly into the child for these types of studies.

You may wish to delay breast feeding your child if you continue to have concerns, but based on the above information the ACR has concluded that it is safe to continue nursing after the examination without a waiting period. If you do choose to wait, you may wait 24 hours with active expression and discarding of breast milk during that time. In anticipation of the study, you may consider using a breast pump to collect milk to feed your child during this wait period.