Hot spots: metastases or osteoporosis?
Daemen, H.M.; de Klerk, J.M.; Raymakers, J.A.; Verhaar, E.H.
Nederlands Tijdschrift Voor Geneeskunde 141(20): 977-980
1997
ISSN/ISBN: 0028-2162 PMID: 9340550 Document Number: 470550
Radionuclide bone scintigraphy is a sensitive but not a specific technique for the diagnosis of bone metastases. Three patients, a man of 67 on steroid therapy because of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and prostate cancer, a woman of 76 on steroid therapy because of temporal arteritis and a 50-year-old man with pain in the back, had bone scintigrams showing abnormal uptake (hot spots). There were delays of months before the diagnosis of osteoporosis instead of bone metastases was made. Abnormal uptake on a bone scintigram is often non-specific and requires further evaluation using supplementary diagnostic techniques.