Bone scintigraphy

Not to be confused with Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry.
Bone scintigraphy
A nuclear medicine whole-body bone scan. The nuclear medicine whole-body bone scan is generally used in evaluations of various bone-related pathology, such as for bone pain, stress fracture, nonmalignant bone lesions, bone infections, or the spread of cancer to the bone.
ICD-9-CM92.14
OPS-301 code3-705
MedlinePlus003833

A bone scan or bone scintigraphy /sɪnˈtɪɡrəfi/ is a nuclear medicine imaging technique used to help diagnose and assess different bone diseases. These include cancer of the bone or metastasis, location of bone inflammation and fractures (that may not be visible in traditional X-ray images), and bone infection (osteomyelitis).[1]

Nuclear medicine provides functional imaging and allows visualisation of bone metabolism or bone remodeling, which most other imaging techniques (such as X-ray computed tomography, CT) cannot.[2][3] Bone scintigraphy competes with positron emission tomography (PET) for imaging of abnormal metabolism in bones, but is considerably less expensive.[4] Bone scintigraphy has higher sensitivity but lower specificity than CT or MRI for diagnosis of scaphoid fractures following negative plain radiography.[5]

  1. ^ Bahk, Yong-Whee (2000). Combined scintigraphic and radiographic diagnosis of bone and joint diseases (2nd ed.). Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer. p. 3. ISBN 9783662041062.
  2. ^ Ćwikła, Jarosław B. (2013). "New imaging techniques in reumathology: MRI, scintigraphy and PET". Polish Journal of Radiology. 78 (3): 48–56. doi:10.12659/PJR.889138. PMC 3789933. PMID 24115960.
  3. ^ Livieratos, Lefteris (2012). "Basic Principles of SPECT and PET Imaging". In Fogelman, Ignac; Gnanasegaran, Gopinath; van der Wall, Hans (eds.). Radionuclide and Hybrid Bone Imaging. Berlin: Springer. p. 345. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-02400-9_12. ISBN 978-3-642-02399-6.
  4. ^ O'Sullivan, Gerard J (2015). "Imaging of bone metastasis: An update". World Journal of Radiology. 7 (8): 202–11. doi:10.4329/wjr.v7.i8.202. PMC 4553252. PMID 26339464.
  5. ^ Mallee, WH; Wang, J; Poolman, RW; Kloen, P; Maas, M; de Vet, HC; Doornberg, JN (5 June 2015). "Computed tomography versus magnetic resonance imaging versus bone scintigraphy for clinically suspected scaphoid fractures in patients with negative plain radiographs". The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2015 (6): CD010023. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD010023.pub2. PMC 6464799. PMID 26045406.