Magnetic resonance imaging and bone scintigraphy in bone metastasis detection: a comparative study

Background/Aim. Bone scintigraphy is well-known method for the detection of neoplastic lesions with a high sensitivity and, at the same time, a lower specificity. On the other hand magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is previously established noninvasive imaging method regarding its diagnostic specificity. The aim of this study was to determine the possibilities and to correlate two different diagnostic methods - bone scintigraphy and MRI in the detection of bone metastasis in the spine and pelvic bones. Methods. A total of 123 patients who underwent both bone scintigraphy and spine and pelvic MM on 1.5 T MR imager were enrolled in this study. Scans were subsequently analyzed in total and divided in regions of interest (cervical, upper, middle and lower thoracic, upper and lower lumbar and pelvic region, which includes sacral spinal segment); afterwards the total number of 585 matching regions were compared and statistically analyzed. Results. The statistical analysis demonstrated significant correlation between the findings of both methods in total. Divided by regions of interest, significant degrees of correlation were demonstrated in all of them, except in the cervical spine region where the r-value was in the range of low correlation. Conclusion. Having a high mutual correlation, bone scintigraphy and MM are to be considered as the complementary diagnostic methods in the detection of bone metastases. Still, increased diagnostic potential of MRI may highlights negative bone scintigraphy findings in the patients with solitary metastatic lesions or diffuse vertebral infiltration. Advances in the bone scintigraphy (single photon emission tomography SPECT, SPECT-computed tomography - SPECT-CT) and MRI (whole body MRI, diffusion MRI), make it possible the diagnostic potential of both methods will result in a further improvement in bone metastasis detection.