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A bone scan or bone scintigraphy / s ɪ n ˈ t ɪ ɡ r ə f i / 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).
A bone density test may detect osteoporosis or osteopenia. [4] The usual response to either of these indications is consultation with a physician. [4] Bone density tests are not recommended for people without risk factors for weak bones, [5] [4] which is more likely to result in unnecessary treatment rather than discovery of a weakness.
A skeletal survey (also called a bone survey [1]) is a series of X-rays of all the bones in the body, or at least the axial skeleton and the large cortical bones. A very common use is the diagnosis of multiple myeloma , where tumour deposits appear as "punched-out" lesions.
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DXA is only able to provide the areal bone mineral density. High-resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography (HR-pQCT) is better than DXA at detecting bone microarchitecture, modeling whole-bone geometry using 3-dimensional information from scans. This method allows estimation of bone strength and other mechanical properties. [20]
DXA scans can also be used to measure total body composition and fat content with a high degree of accuracy comparable to hydrostatic weighing with a few important caveats. [18] [specify] From the DXA scans, a low resolution "fat shadow" image can also be generated, which gives an overall impression of fat distribution throughout the body. [19]
As with any test that screens for disease, the risks of full-body CT scans need to be weighed against the benefit of identifying a treatable disease at an early stage. [6] An alternative to a full-body CT scan may be Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. MRI scans are generally more expensive than CT but do not expose the patient to ionizing ...
SPECT scans are significantly less expensive than PET scans, in part because they are able to use longer-lived and more easily obtained radioisotopes than PET. Because SPECT acquisition is very similar to planar gamma camera imaging, the same radiopharmaceuticals may be used. If a patient is examined in another type of nuclear medicine scan ...