Research Article Anxiety in Cancer Patients during 18 F-FDG PET/CT Low Dose: A Comparison of Anxiety Levels before and after Imaging Studies Ana Grilo, 1,2 Lina Vieira, 3,4 Elisabete Carolino, 5 Cátia Oliveira, 6 Carolina Pacheco, 6 Maria Castro, 7 and Juan Alonso 8,9 1 Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Escola Superior de Tecnologia da Sa´ ude de Lisboa, Instituto Polit´ ecnico de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal 2 Centro de Investigac ¸˜ ao em Ciˆ encias Psicol´ ogica, Faculdade de Psicologia, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal 3 ´ Area Cientifca de Medicina Nuclear, Escola Superior de Tecnologia da Sa´ ude de Lisboa, Instituto Polit´ ecnico de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal 4 Instituto de Biof´ ısica e Engenharia Biom´ edica, Faculdade de Ciˆ encias da Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal 5 Department of Natural Sciences, Escola Superior de Tecnologia da Sa´ ude de Lisboa, Instituto Polit´ ecnico de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal 6 Escola Superior de Tecnologia da Sa´ ude de Lisboa, Instituto Polit´ ecnico de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal 7 Servicio de Medicina Nuclear, Instituto Tecnol´ ogico de Servicios Sanitarios, Madrid, Spain 8 Servicio de Medicina Nuclear, Hospital General Universitario “Gregorio Mara˜ non”, Madrid, Spain 9 Sociedad Espa˜ nola de Medicina Nuclear e Imagen Molecular, Madrid, Spain Correspondence should be addressed to Ana Grilo; ana.grilo@estesl.ipl.pt Received 28 July 2016; Revised 6 October 2016; Accepted 28 November 2016; Published 14 March 2017 Academic Editor: Claire Newman Copyright © 2017 Ana Grilo et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Objective. Assessing the level of anxiety in oncology patients who underwent 18 F-FDG PET/CT low dose scan and identifying the main reasons that generate anxiety. Material and Method. Te study included 81 cancer patients submitted to the 18 F-FDG PET/CT low dose scan. Patients flled in the Scan Experience Questionnaire and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) before and afer 18 F-FDG PET/CT low dose scan. Results. Substantial levels of anxiety were detected both before and afer 18 F-FDG PET/CT low dose scan (STAI mean > 30), with a signifcant increase in the state of anxiety afer scan performance ( < 0.0001, Median pre = 31.1, and Median pos = 33.0). 18 F-FDG PET/CT low dose results are the main cause of anxiety both before (79.1%) and afer (86.9%) the scan. Te information provided by staf both before and on the 18 F-FDG PET/CT low dose day was classifed mostly as completely understandable (70.5% and 75.3%, resp.) and as very useful (70.5% and 72.6%, resp.) and correlated positively with patients’ overall satisfaction with NM Department (  = 0.372,  = 0.004 and   = 0.528, p = 0.000, resp.), but not with anxiety levels. Conclusions. Patients perceive high levels of anxiety during the 18 F-FDG PET/CT low dose scan and the concern with scan results was pointed out as the main factor for that emotional reaction. 1. Introduction Positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography (PET/CT) low dose with 18 F-fuor-2-deoxi-D-glucose ( 18 F- FDG) and other radiopharmaceuticals (e.g., 11 C-colina, 11 C- acetato, and 11 C-metionina) is of increasing interest in the study of the cancer patient since it is indicated in diferential diagnosis, follow-up, and prognostic and therapeutic plan related to cancer diseases [1, 2]. Anxiety can be defned as a complex reaction to situations when perceived by patient as dangerous even if just under an uncertain circumstance. It can take many forms, as psychic, physiological, and behavioral components [3]. Tis emotional reaction is ofen felt by cancer patients during 18 F-FDG PET/CT low dose scans. Tere are many factors that can generate anxiety during 18 F-FDG PET/CT low dose procedures, as the use of radiopharmaceuticals, which produce radiation and because of it many patients can Hindawi Nursing Research and Practice Volume 2017, Article ID 3057495, 9 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/3057495