A bone scan or bone scintigraphy is used to in evaluate diseases of the skeletal system. Scintigraphic whole body bone imaging is a highly sensitive method to show changes in bone metabolism. Increased metabolic activity is seen as a hot spot.
The study requires the injection of a 99mTc-labeled radiopharmaceutical (most commonly methylene diphosphonate (MDP), hydroxymethylene diphosphonate (HMDP) or hydroxyethylene diphosphonate (HDP)). The activity administered for bone scanning is around 500 MBq (300-1100 MBq, 8-30 mCi), depending on age and weight of the patient. After 2-5 hours, the emitted gamma rays are detected by gamma cameras. The produced planar images include anterior and posterior views of the skeleton.
Multiphase bone scintigraphy is used to differentiate a bone process from tissue pathology. In some cases additional SPECT imaging is helpful to better characterize the presence, location and extent of disease.

A bone scintigraphy is a nuclear medical test used to detect increased calcium metabolisms with technetium labeled diphosphonates. Pathological bone processes present themselves primarily as activity enrichment.

See Bone Scan and Multiphase Bone Scintigraphy.

A joint scintigraphy is a nuclear medical study to detect active joint disease (for example arthritis, osteomyelitis and synovitis). Joint scintigraphies are possible with different radiopharmaceuticals as 99mTc-Tc04, 99mTc nanocolloid (NC) or 99mTc-IgG. Joint scintigraphy is a procedure for a specific purpose rather than a routine test.

See also Bone Scan, Bone Marrow Scintigraphy and Multiphase Bone Scintigraphy.

A multiphase bone scintigraphy (bone scan) is a nuclear medical examination including blood flow images, immediate images, and delayed images.
The blood flow study is a dynamic sequence of planar images of the bone region of interest obtained during the injection of the radiopharmaceutical (radioactive tracer).
The immediate phase (blood pool or soft tissue study) include one or more static images of selected regions, obtained immediately after the blood flow phase within 10 min.
Delayed images (usually whole body) are usually acquired 2-5 hours after injection. Later (6-24 hour) delayed images result in a higher target to background ratio and may permit better evaluation of the pelvis if this was obscured by bladder activity on the routine images. This late imaging may be particularly helpful in patients with renal insufficiency or peripheral circulatory disorders and those with urinary retention.

Whole body scintigraphy is the measurement of radioactivity in the entire body.
Whole body scintigraphy is useful for example in detection of tumors, infections, evaluation of metastases, and diseases with multiple organ involvement.
Different whole body scan techniques include: