<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To evaluate the feasibility of whole body
diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) in
bone metastasis detection using
bone scintigraphy as comparison.</p><p><b>
METHODS</b>Forty-five
patients with
malignancy history were enrolled in our study. All the
patients received the whole body DWI and
bone scintigraphy scan within 1 week. The
magnetic resonance (MR) examination was performed on 3.0T MR scanner using embedded body coil. The images were reviewed separately by two
radiologists and two
nuclear medicine physicians,
who were blinded to the results of the other imaging modality. The
sensitivity,
specificity,
positive predictive value (PPV) and
negative predictive value (NPV) of the two
techniques for detecting
bone metastasis were analyzed.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>A total of 181 metastatic lesions in 77 regions of 34
patients were detected by whole body DWI, and 167 metastatic lesions in 76 regions of 31
patients were identified by
bone scintigraphy. The
patient-based
sensitivity and PPV of whole body DWI and
bone scintigraphy were
similar (89.5% vs. 81.6%, 97.1% vs. 91.2%), whereas, the
patient-based
specificity and NPV of whole body DWI were obviously higher than those of
bone scintigraphy (85.7% vs. 57.1%, 60.0% vs. 36.4%). Ten regions negative in
scintigraphy but positive in whole body DWI, mainly located in
spine,
pelvis, and
femur; nine regions only detected by
scintigraphy, mainly located in
skull,
sternum,
clavicle, and
scapula. The region-based
sensitivity and specificity of whole body DWI were slightly higher than those of
bone scintigraphy (89.5% vs. 88.4%, 95.6% vs. 87.6%).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Whole body DWI reveals excellent concordance with
bone scintigraphy regarding
detection of
bone metastasis, and the two
techniques are complementary for each other.</p>