Overview of the role of bone scintigraphy in the pathophysiology of sporting injuries

Abstract

Bone scintigraphy is ideally placed to detect early and subtle manifestations of bone and soft-tissue injury in the context of sporting injuries. The pathophysiology of such injuries is easily reflected in the binding of the bone-seeking pharmaceuticals utilised in the technique. The addition of fused tomographic images from the scintigraphic tomograms and x-ray computed tomography (CT) enhances the sensitivity and specificity for detection of injury by marrying the high contrast resolution of scintigraphy to the spatial resolution of CT scanning. However, the accurate interpretation of images depends on a good history and physical examination together with careful planning of the study to extract the maximum value out of such studies.