Bone scanning in lumbar disc herniation

99m technetium methylene diphosphate was used for whole body scanning and linear multiplane tomoscanning in 10 patients with typical clinical symptoms of prolapsed disc, in order to investigate whether there would be an increased focal accumulation corresponding to the bone structures adjacent to the affected disc. The diagnosis of a prolapsed disc was confined by amipaque myelography, carried out in 9 patients, and finally verified at operation. In none of the 10 cases could accumulation of radioactivity in the bony structures of the affected lumar segment be demonstrated. Consequently this method has not been adopted for the diagnosis of prolapsed lumbar discs. However it was demonstrated that 99m technetium methylene diphosphate scintillography is useful in the differential diagnosis of anchylosing spondylitis and discitis.