A 39-year-old member asked:
Why are injections required before doing a bone scan to check for a stress fracture?
3 doctor answers • 4 doctors weighed in
Dr. Andrew Osiasonanswered
32 years experience
Only one: Only one inflection is needed. That is the injection of tc-mdp, the tracer taken up by he bones and detected by the nuclear medicine camera. This tracer shows active bone turnover and is focally "hot" in sites of fracture.
5.5k viewsReviewed >2 years ago
Dr. Gerald Mandellanswered
Nuclear Medicine 53 years experience
Blood to skeleton: Bone scan involves intravenous injection of radio tracer usually technetium 99m mdp which accumulates in skeleton. Scan may involve early phase(5-10 min) and late phase(2-3 hr) imaging. Increased uptake is seen in fractures, tumors, infection, etc. Decreased activity is seen in metal artifacts, aggressive tumor/infection, & loss of blood supply to bones. Bone scan very sensitive but not specific.
5.4k viewsAnswered >2 years ago
Dr. Raymond Tailleferanswered
Nuclear Medicine 43 years experience
Radiotracer injectio: A bone scan or bone scintigraphy is obtained few hours after the injection of a radiotracer ( usually 99mtc-mdp). The distribution of this radiotracer in the various bones will be detected by a specific type of camera named gamma camera ( to detect the gamma rays from 99mtechnetium). This is the contrary of a bone x-ray where external radiation source is used.
5.3k viewsAnswered >2 years ago
Similar questions
A 34-year-old member asked:
What causes you to need to get an injection to do a bone scan to check for a stress fracture?
2 doctor answers • 7 doctors weighed in
Dr. Fidias De Leonanswered
Nuclear Medicine 22 years experience
Radiotracer: A nuclear medicine bone scan is used to evaluate for conditions affecting bones including cancer, fractures, degenerative diseases etc. The radiotracer or radioactive material used is injected through a vein quickly reach your bones where it is deposited. A gamma camera is used to detect the radiotracer and images are created. The radiation is cleared from your body mostly in urine.
5.2k viewsReviewed >2 years ago
Dr. Larry Wilf commented
undefined 35 years experience
A bone scan is significantly more sensitive than Xray for determining a stress fracture. It takes on average a 50% density change on Xray to see an abnormality vs about 10% on a bone scan.
Apr 8, 2013
Dr. Kenneth Bennet commented
Nuclear Medicine 19 years experience
The bone scan also detects the stress fracture changes much earlier than X-rays
Aug 5, 2013
Last updated Feb 9, 2017
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