Application of radionuclide imaging in osteosarcoma

Objective: In order to diagnose osteosarcoma, examine multi-centric osteosarcoma and assess the effect of treatment, the authors evaluate the characters of radionuclide imaging and uptake of 99Tcm-MDP and 201Tl in osteosarcoma. Methods: 133 patients with osteosarcoma underwent a total of 174 times of 99Tcm-MDP whole-body scintigraphic imaging and 33 times of 201Tl local imaging to observe the characters of imaging of osteosarcoma and the uptake of imaging agents. Results: The character of 99Tcm-MDP imaging was the high uptake in the lesion of 108 patients with mono-lesion osteosarcoma. There were some areas of reduced uptake in the hot zone with or without uptake in soft tissues. Semiquantitative uptake ratio of the lesion to its correspondent tissue at opposite side was 5.40 +- 3.42 (n = 33). 201Tl imaging in 33 patients with osteosarcoma: blood flow was distinctly increased. The uptake ratio at 15 min was 3.38 +- 2.12, and at 3 h was 2.03 +- 0.87 (n = 33). The 99Tcm-MDP imaging in patients with multiple osteosarcoma and patients with multiple pulmonary metastasis, and the application of 99Tcm-MDP imaging in recurrence and bone metastasis of osteosarcoma were also reported. Conclusions: The biologic behavior of osteosarcoma can be illustrated by radionuclide imaging. It will play an important role in the basic and clinical research of primary osteosarcoma