[Prospective study to assess the clinical efficacy of bone scintigraphy--methodology and some preliminary results]

The purpose of this study is to evaluate prospectively the value of radionuclide bone scans at the preoperative assessment of carcinomas of the breast and prostate carcinomas. Ten hospitals which are in or near Tokyo are participating in this study. For each patient under study, three kinds of sheet are filled by doctors. The first sheet named "preexamination diagnosis data sheet" is recorded before preoperative bone scan by attending physicians mainly. The second sheet named "postexamination diagnosis data sheet" is recorded after preoperative bone scan by nuclear medicine physicians who performed bone scintigraphy. The third sheet named "final diagnosis data sheet" is recorded after about a year of follow up period by attending physicians or nuclear medicine physicians. These data have been stored in a electric computer. Some preliminary analysis has been made by comparing the confidence level of diagnosis for bone metastasis before and after bone scintigraphy. In this report, methodology of the analysis and some results are described.