Abstract
Since the introduction of 99mTc-MDP bone scintigraphy (Subramaniam and McAfee 1971), the use of this radiopharmaceutical is the method of choice in establishing the presence of bone metastases. The presence of bone metastases causes osteolytic and osteoblastic responses. The technetium-labeled MDP is taken up by chemisorption onto phosphorus groups of calcium hydroxyapatite, the basic crystal of bone (Gold and Basset 1986). Radionuclide bone sinctiscans are very sensitive for detecting the altered local metabolism in areas of skeletal remodeling associated with metastatic deposits. The radionuclide study requires as little as a 5%–10% change in the lesion-to-normal bone ratio for an abnormal focus to be appreciated on the scintiscan. However, it is well known that bone scintigraphy can be false negative in the case of very aggressive metastasis. Furthermore, false positive findings of bone scintigraphy are described in patients with nonmalignant disease like degeneration, healing fractures, and various metabolic disorders like osteoporosis and osteomalacia (Thrall and Ellis 1987). The potential of MRI for detecting bone metastases is considered to be very good (Daffner et al. 1986; Modic et al. 1986; Moon et al. 1983; Smoker et al. 1987; Zimmer et al. 1985). We compared in a retrospective manner the bone scintiscans and MRI examinations of 48 patients with malignant disease and suspected vertebral metastases.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Colman LK, Porter BA, Redmond J, Olsen DA, Stimac GK, Dunning DM, Friedl KE (1988) Early diagnosis of spinal metastases by CT and MR studies. J Comput Assist Tomogr 12:423–426
Daffner RH, Lupetin AR, Dash N, Deeb ZL, Sefczek RJ, Schapirol RL (1986) MRI in the detection of malignant infiltration of bone marrow. AJR 146:353–358
De Roos A, Kressel H, Spritzer C, Dalinka M (1987) MRI of marrow changes adjacent to end plates in degenerative lumbar disk disease. AJR 149:541–534
Doosm GC, Fisher MR, Hricak H, Richardson M, Crooks LE, Genant HK (1985) Bone marrow imaging: magnetic resonance studies related to age and sex. Radiology 155:429–432
Frager D, Elkin C, Swerdlow M, Swerdlow M, Bloch S (1988) Subacute osteoporotic compression fracture: misleading magnetic resonance appearance. Skeletal Radiol 17:123–126
Gold RH, Bassett LW (1986) Radionuclide evaluation of skeletal metastases: practical considerations. Skeletal Radiol 15:1–9
Grenier N, Grossman RI, Schiebler ML, Yeager BA, Goldberg HI, Kressel HY (1987) Degenerative lumbar disk disease: pitfalls and usefulness of MR imaging in detection of the vacuum phenomenon. Radiology 164:861–865
Hajek PC, Baker LL, Goobar JE, Sartoris DJ, Hesselink JR, Haghighi P, Resnick D (1987) Focal fat deposition in axial bone marrow: MR characteristics. Radiology 162:245–249
Li KC, Poon PY (1988) Sensitivity and specificity of MRI in detecting malignant spinal cord compression and in distinguishing malignant from benign compression fractures of vertebrae. Magn Reson Imaging 6:547–556
Modic MT, Steinberg PM, Ross JS, Masaryk TJ, Carter JR (1986) Degenerative disk disease: assessment of changes in vertebral body marrow with MR imaging. Radiology 166:193–199
Modic MT, Masaryk TJ, Ross JS, Carter JR (1988) Imaging of degenerative disk disease. State of the art. Radiology 168:177–186
Moon KL Jr, Genant HK, Helms CA, Chafetz NI, Crooks LE, Kaufman L (1983) Musculoskeletal applications of nuclear magnetic resonance. Radiology 147:161–171
Ramsey RG, Zacharias CE (1985) MR imaging of the spine after radiation therapy: easily recognizable effects. AJR 144:1131–1135
Remedios PA, Coletti PM, Raval JK et al (1988) MRI of bone after radiation. Magn Reson Imaging 6:301–304
Richards MA, Webb JAW, Jewell SE, Gregory WM, Reznek RH (1988) In vivo measurement of spin lattice relaxation time of bone marrow in healthy volunteers: the effect of age and sex. Br J Radiol 61:30–33
Smoker WRK, Godresky JC, Knutzon RK, Keyes WD, Norman D, Bergman W (1987) Role of MR imaging in evaluating metastatic spinal disease. AJR 149:1241–1248
Sobel DF, Zyroff J, Thorne RP (1987) Diskogenic vertebral sclerosis: MR imaging. J Corn-put Assist Tomogr 11:855
Subramaniam G, McAfee JG (1981) A new complex of 99mTc polyphosphate for skeletal imaging. Radiology 99:192–196
Sugimura K, Yamaski K, Kitagaki H, Tanaka Y, Kono M (1987) Bone marrow diseases of the spine: differentiation with T1 and T2 relaxation times in MR imaging. Radiology 165:541–544
Thrall HT, Ellis BI (1987) Skeletal metastases. Radiol Clin North Am 25:1155–1170
Vogler JB, Murphy WA (1988) Bone marrow imaging. State of the art. Radiology 168:679–693
Zimmer WD, Berquist TH, McLeod RA, Sim FH, Pritchard DJ, Shives TC, Wold LE, May GR (1985) Bone tumors: magnetic resonance imaging versus computed tomography. Radiology 155:709–718
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1990 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Algra, P.R. et al. (1990). MRI vs Scintigraphy in the Detection of Vertebral Metastases: Preliminary Results. In: Higer, H.P., Bielke, G. (eds) Tissue Characterization in MR Imaging. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-74993-3_30
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-74993-3_30
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-74995-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-74993-3
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive