Bone scintigraphy and metabolic disorders

The most important features of bone scintigraphy in metabolic bone disease are its high sensitivity and its capacity to easily image the whole body. A lthough in the early stages of evolution bone scintigraphy may present diff iculties in disease detection because of its usual discrete generalized inc reased uptake, as the disease progresses, bone scintigraphy has well-recogn ized appearances, and with the knowledge of the different patterns of abnor mality its highest diagnostic value can be obtained. Currently, the main cl inical value of bone scan in metabolic bone disease is the detection of foc al conditions or focal complications of such generalized disease, its most common use being the detection of fractures in osteoporosis, pseudofracture s in osteomalacia and the evaluation of Paget's disease.