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Bone Scintigraphy: Patterns, Variants, Limitations and Artefacts

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Radionuclide and Hybrid Bone Imaging

Abstract

Radionuclide bone scintigraphy is a highly sensitive investigative tool, routinely used in the evaluation of patients with cancer for suspected bone metastases and in various benign musculoskeletal conditions. Technological innovations such as single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), positron emission tomography (PET), PET/CT and SPECT/CT have been incorporated into the assessment of various musculoskeletal diseases. One of the limitations of bone scintigraphy is its relatively reduced specificity. Some of the limited specificity can be addressed with a thorough knowledge and experience of normal variants, as well as common patterns of disease, in order to avoid misinterpretation. In this chapter, we discuss the common patterns, variants, artefacts and pitfalls in conventional radionuclide planar, SPECT and hybrid bone SPECT/CT Imaging.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Nuclear Medicine, Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, Pond Street, London, NW3 2QG, London, UK

    Malavika Nathan

  2. Department of Nuclear Medicine, Guy’s and St Thomas Foundation NHS Trust, London, UK

    Gopinath Gnanasegaran & Ignac Fogelman

  3. Department of Nuclear Medicine, Managed Networks, Clinical Imaging and Medical Physics, London, UK

    Kathryn Adamson

Authors
  1. Malavika Nathan
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  2. Gopinath Gnanasegaran
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  3. Kathryn Adamson
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  4. Ignac Fogelman
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Correspondence to Malavika Nathan .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Medicine, Dept. Nuclear Medicine, Guy's, King's and St. Thomas', Guy's Campus, London, SE1 9RT, United Kingdom

    Ignac Fogelman

  2. Deptartment of Nuclear Medicine, Guy's and St. Thomas Hospital, St. Thomas Street, London, SE1 9RT, United Kingdom

    Gopinath Gnanasegaran

  3. Dept. Nuclear Medicine &, Nuclear Cardiology, Concord Repatriation General Hospital, Hospital Road, Concord West, 2138, New South Wales, Australia

    Hans van der Wall

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Nathan, M., Gnanasegaran, G., Adamson, K., Fogelman, I. (2012). Bone Scintigraphy: Patterns, Variants, Limitations and Artefacts. In: Fogelman, I., Gnanasegaran, G., van der Wall, H. (eds) Radionuclide and Hybrid Bone Imaging. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-02400-9_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-02400-9_15

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