Diagnostic & prognostic impact of 18F-NaF PET/CT versus 99mTc-MDP bone scan in detection of bone metastases

Abstract

Purpose: To assess the role of 18F-NaF PET/CT in the detection of metastatic bone disease compared to 99mTc-MDP bone scan (+/-SPECT/CT). Methods: 64 adult patients with locally advanced primary tumor were enrolled in this study. All patients underwent pretherapy 18F-NaF PET/CT and 99mTc-MDP bone scan. Results: Among the 64 patients 18F-NaF PET/CT revealed positive bone metastases in 26 patients, only 19 of them have positive results in 99mTc-MDP bone scan, while the remaining 7 patients were falsely negative in 99mTc-MDP bone scan. On the other hand 18F-NaF PET/CT diagnosed 38 patients free of osseous metastases, 5 patients of them were falsely diagnosed having osseous metastases by 99mTc-MDP bone scan. None of patient has positive bone metastases by 99mTc-MDP & negative 18F-NaF PET/CT for bone metastases in our study group. The overall results revealed significant higher sensitivity for 18F-NaF PET/CT (100%) compared to 99mTc-MDP bone scan (73.08%) (P<0.05) as well as higher specificity for 18F-NaF PET/CT (100%) compared to 99mTc-MDP bone scan (86.8%) (P<0.05). Conclusion: 18F-NaF PET/CT is a high-quality skeletal imaging with convenient diagnostic performance in either lytic or sclerotic bone lesions surpassing that of Tc99m MDP, with lower equivocal interpretations.