Paediatric 99mTc-DMSA imaging: Reducing distress and rate of sedation using a psychological approach.

Aim: To evaluate the effect of a psychological approach on distress and sedation rates in children undergoing dimer captosuccinic acid-labelled with technetium-99 (99mTc) DMSA imaging.

Materials And Methods: Baseline data, on a retrospective consecutive sample of children examined using DMSA over a 6-month period (n = 81), were collected via medical note search and postal questionnaire. A further consecutive sample of 40 children was recruited prospectively to the intervention, which consisted of distraction during medical procedures and environmental manipulation.