Screening bone scintigraphy, magnetic resonance imaging metastases comparison with the whole-body

Metastatic bone tumors are most common neoplastic disease of skeletal system and occur in up to %65 of cancer cases in the last stages. Bone is the third most common site of distant metastasis after the lungs and liver. In adition to other factors presence of metastasis affects the treatment options and influences the prognosis.Altought improved techniques it is difficult to detect metastatic bone lesions in many cases. Each conventional modality has limiting factors for the assessment of bone metastases; radiographs are insensitive in the detection of lesions smaller than 1.5cm in trabeculated bone and lesions become apparent only after the loss of %40-50 of bone mineral content. Although CT scanning is a sensitive modality in the detection of bone metastasis, the usefulness of CT scanning in detecting early deposits in bone marrow is limited. Bone scintiscanning continues to be used as the initial screening. Increased uptake is seen in every pathologic condition with increased osteoblastic activity so bone scintiscan findings are nonspecific in determining the cause.Also it is insensitive in detecting of purely lytic lesions.