Place of bone scan in Paget's disease of bone

The clinical and laboratory signs, as well as the imaging and course of Paget's disease of bone, are now well known. This chronic and usually benign disease is characterized by excessive remodelling of bone tissue, associated with an increase, sometimes considerable, of osteoclast resorption and osteoblast formation activities. The bone scan is a fundamental examination to establish initial mapping of the localizations of the disease. This examination has a greater sensitivity than X-rays for the flat bones. Through three clinical cases, we present the bone scan aspect, the various localizations and the diagnosis difficulties of the disease, especially when a context of neoplasm is present. (C) 2010 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.