A comparative study of bone scintigraphy and NMR for vertebral diseases

A comparative study of NMR and bone scintigraphy was performed in vertebral disorders, and the significance of both modalities was evaluated. Twelve patients with various vertebral abnormalities including ten cases of vertebral metastases, one case of cervical caries and one case of Granular cell tumor of L3, were examined. In 4 patients, NMR showed abnormalities in the same regions as the bone scintigrams. In another 3 patients. NMR did not show the disorders reported on bone scintigrams. This may be due to the low NMR sensitivity to tiny infiltration of tumor cells in the bone marrow. In 3 out of the remaining 5 patients, NMR demonstrated abnormal findings, whilst the bone scintigrams were normal. Previous bone scintigrams in these patients before treatment had shown abnormal accumulation of activity in the region of abnormal NMR findings. This may be due to the fact that NMR detects the irreversible change of bone marrow, and bone scintigram demonstrates the turn over of bone minerals. This limited experience suggests that both madalities are complementary in the evaluation of vertebral abnormalities. (author)