Pope Francis, who has been suffering from influenza, made a brief trip to a hospital in Rome for medical tests today but was able to return to the Vatican, his office said in a statement.
The 87-year-old had checks at Tiber Island hospital after his weekly general audience, the statement said, without providing further details.
Two medical sources said that he underwent a CT scan.
Pope Francis had the same procedure at the same hospital in November, following another bout of influenza. The scan allows doctors to see detailed internal images of a patient's body.
Televised images showed a Vatican-registered white Fiat - a model that he uses regularly - leaving the medical facility in the centre of Rome at around 12pm local time (11am Irish time).
He had earlier skipped a reading at his weekly audience, delegating the task to an aide and telling the faithful he was still not well.
"Dear brothers and sisters, I still have a bit of a cold," Pope Francis said, announcing that someone else would read his catechesis on envy and vainglory, two of the seven deadly sins.
The reading was about one page long.
The pope spoke at the end of his audience, sounding hoarse and coughing, to greet some of the faithful and issue calls for peace, as is customary.
Francis, who has had a number of health issues recently, had cancelled appointments on Saturday and on Monday due to what the Vatican described as a mild flu.
On Sunday, he addressed crowds in St Peter's Square as normal, to deliver his Angelus message.
The pope was forced to cancel a planned trip to a COP28 climate meeting in Dubai at the start of December because of the effects of influenza and lung inflammation.
In January, he was unable to complete a speech owing to "a touch of bronchitis".
Later in the month he said he was doing better despite "some aches and pains".
As a young man in his native Argentina, Francis had part of a lung removed.
The pope also has difficulty walking, regularly using a wheelchair or a cane, and arrived at his indoor audience today in a wheelchair.
