[Backache from the point of view of the nuclear medicine practitioner]

Radionuclide skeletal scintigraphy is recognized as a screening method for patients with back pain. The analog scintigram is a functional image with high sensitivity and low specificity. The improvement in specificity can be achieved using computer procedures as digital imaging, smoothing, contrast enhancement and profile selection to quantitate certain properties of the scan. Three-phase-skeletal scintigraphy, 67-Ga-citrate or 111-In labeled leucocytes augment the specificity, too.