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Nuclear scans use radioactive substances to see structures and functions inside your body. They use a special camera that detects radioactivity.

Before the test, you receive a small amount of radioactive material. You may get it as an injection. Sometimes you swallow it or inhale it. Then you lie still on a table while the camera makes images. Most scans take 20 to 45 minutes.

Nuclear scans can help doctors diagnose many conditions, including cancers, injuries, and infections. They can also show how organs like your heart and lungs are working.

You have two kidneys, each about the size of your fist. Their main job is to filter your blood. They remove wastes and extra water, which become urine. They also keep the body's chemicals balanced, help control blood pressure, and make hormones.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) means that your kidneys are damaged and can't filter blood as they should. This damage can cause wastes to build up in your body. It can also cause other problems that can harm your health. Diabetes and high blood pressure are the most common causes of CKD.

The kidney damage occurs slowly over many years. Many people don't have any symptoms until their kidney disease is very advanced. Blood and urine tests are the only way to know if you have kidney disease.

Treatments cannot cure kidney disease, but they may slow kidney disease. They include medicines to lower blood pressure, control blood sugar, and lower cholesterol. CKD may still get worse over time. Sometimes it can lead to kidney failure. If your kidneys fail, you will need dialysis or a kidney transplantation.

You can take steps to keep your kidneys healthier longer:

• Choose foods with less salt (sodium)
• Control your blood pressure; your health care provider can tell you what your blood pressure should be
• Keep your blood sugar in the target range, if you have diabetes
• Limit the amount of alcohol you drink
• Choose foods that are healthy for your heart: fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat dairy foods
• Lose weight if you are overweight
• Be physically active
• Don't smoke

NIH: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases

You have two kidneys, each about the size of your fist. They are near the middle of your back, just below the rib cage. Inside each kidney there are about a million tiny structures called nephrons. They filter your blood. They remove wastes and extra water, which become urine. The urine flows through tubes called ureters. It goes to your bladder, which stores the urine until you go to the bathroom.

Most kidney diseases attack the nephrons. This damage may leave kidneys unable to remove wastes. Causes can include genetic problems, injuries, or medicines. You have a higher risk of kidney disease if you have diabetes, high blood pressure, or a close family member with kidney disease. Chronic kidney disease damages the nephrons slowly over several years. Other kidney problems include:

• Cancer
• Cysts
• Stones
• Infections

Your doctor can do blood and urine tests to check if you have kidney disease. If your kidneys fail, you will need dialysis or a kidney transplant.

NIH: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases

You have two kidneys. They are fist-sized organs on either side of your backbone above your waist. Your kidneys filter and clean your blood, taking out waste products and making urine. Kidney tests check to see how well your kidneys are working. They include blood, urine, and imaging tests.

Early kidney disease usually does not have signs or symptoms. Testing is the only way to know how your kidneys are doing. It is important for you to get checked for kidney disease if you have the key risk factors - diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, or a family history of kidney failure.

Specific kidney tests include:

• Glomerular filtration rate (GFR) - one of the most common blood tests to check for chronic kidney disease. It tells how well your kidneys are filtering.
• Creatinine blood and urine tests - check the levels of creatinine, a waste product that your kidneys remove from your blood
• Albumin urine test - checks for albumin, a protein that can pass into the urine if the kidneys are damaged
• Imaging tests, such as an ultrasound - provide pictures of the kidneys. The pictures help the health care provider see the size and shape of the kidneys, and check for anything unusual.
• Kidney biopsy - a procedure that involves taking a small piece of kidney tissue for examination with a microscope. It checks for the cause of kidney disease and how damaged your kidneys are.

NIH: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases

Neuroblastoma is a type of cancer that forms in nerve cells called neuroblasts. Neuroblasts are immature nerve tissue. They normally turn into working nerve cells. But in neuroblastoma, they form a tumor.

Neuroblastoma usually begins in the adrenal glands. You have two adrenal glands, one on top of each kidney. The adrenal glands make important hormones that help control heart rate, blood pressure, blood glucose (blood sugar), and the way the body reacts to stress. Neuroblastoma may also begin in the neck, chest or spinal cord.

Neuroblastoma is caused by changes in your genes. Gene changes also called gene variants or mutations. In most cases, the cause of the mutation is unknown. In some other cases, the mutation is passed from the parent to the child.

Neuroblastoma often begins in early childhood. Sometimes it begins before a child is born.The most common symptoms are caused by the tumor pressing on nearby tissues as it grows or by cancer spreading to the bone.They include:

• A lump in the abdomen, neck, or chest
• Bulging eyes
• Dark circles around the eyes
• Bone pain
• Swollen stomach and trouble breathing in babies
• Painless, bluish lumps under the skin in babies
• Weakness or paralysis (loss of ability to move a body part)

To diagnose neuroblastoma, your child's health care provider will do various tests and procedures, which may include:

• A medical history.
• A neurological exam.
• Imaging tests, such as x-rays, a CT scan, an ultrasound, an MRI, or an MIBG scan. In an MIBG scan, a small amount of a radioactive substance is injected into a vein. It travels through the bloodstream and attaches itself to any neuroblastoma cells. A scanner detects the cells.
• Blood and urine tests.
• Biopsy, in which a sample of tissue is removed and examined under a microscope.
• Bone marrow aspiration and biopsy, in which bone marrow, blood, and a small piece of bone are removed for testing.

The treatments for neuroblastoma include:

• Observation, also called watchful waiting, is where the health care provider does not give any treatments until your child's signs or symptoms appear or change.
• Surgery
• Radiation therapy.
• Chemotherapy.
• High-dose chemotherapy and radiation therapy with stem cell rescue. Your child will get high doses of chemotherapy and radiation. This kills the cancer cells, but it also kills healthy cells. So your child will get a stem cell transplant, usually of his or her own cells collected earlier. This helps to replace the healthy cells that were lost.
• Iodine 131-MIBG therapy, a treatment with radioactive iodine. The radioactive iodine collects in neuroblastoma cells and kills them with the radiation that is given off.
• Targeted therapy, which uses drugs or other substances that attack specific cancer cells with less harm to normal cells.

NIH: National Cancer Institute

Pheochromocytoma is a rare tumor that usually starts in the cells of one of your adrenal glands. Although they are usually benign, pheochromocytomas often cause the adrenal gland to make too many hormones. This can lead to high blood pressure and cause symptoms such as :

• Headaches
• Sweating
• Pounding of the heart
• Being shaky
• Being extremely pale

Sometimes pheochromocytoma is part of another condition called multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome (MEN). People with MEN often have other cancers and other problems involving hormones.

Doctors use lab tests and imaging tests to diagnose it. Surgery is the most common treatment. Other options include radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and targeted therapy. Targeted therapy uses drugs or other substances that attack specific cancer cells with less harm to normal cells.

NIH: National Cancer Institute