Scintigraphy in nontraumatic femoral head necrosis

We performed serial 99mTc-MDP bone scintigraphy of nontraumatic femoral head necrosis in 14 hips of 10 patients. The uptake of isotope was decreased in the very early stage, and either variable or increased at the stage when symptoms appeared. A variable uptake changed to increased uptake in 3 of 10 patients, but there was no hip in which an increased uptake changed to a variable uptake. No relationship was demonstrated between the scintigraphic appearance of the femoral head and the pain and function of the hip.