How do bone scan and a pet scan differ?

Yes: Bone scan, injection of isotope usually tc99m mdp, detects abnormalities of bone metabolism, infection, fracture, some tumors, highly metabolic bone processes such as Paget's disease, bone infarction.Pet with f18 FDG injection detects changes in glucose metabolism i.e. Tumors and metastases.In general malignant tumors have high glucose metabolism. Fluorine 18 pet scan in some centers for imaging bone.

Tracers..: The tracers are different. Bone scan usually uses TcMDP and PET scan uses F18-FDG (glucose). The bone scan is good for showing osteoblastic bone lesions and shows increased bone activity around a metastasis but not the actual metastasis itself. The PET can show glucose uptake in the actual tumor itself. PET is better for lytic bone lesions. CT part of PET/CT can show lytic and blastic lesions.