Review of a 5-year experience with the radiostrontium bone scintiscan

Radiostrontium ((85)Sr) skeletal scintiscanning was done on 640 cases and 520 were included in a review. Forty-eight percent of 359 patients with biopsy-proved malignant disease had secondary skeletal involvement; in 17 percent the involvement was identified by scintiscanning alone. False-negative scintiscans were recorded in 0.9 percent. Unusual (85)Sr localization was found in a bone infarct, in proteus bursitis and in a pulmonary aspergillosis infiltrate. Serum alkaline phosphatase levels were found to be of little value in the evaluation for osseous metastasis, and normal acid phosphatase values in patients with prostatic carcinoma did not exclude the possibility of spread to the skeleton. Both the scintiscan and roentgenograms are essential in the evaluation of patients for metastatic bone disease.