Detection of bone metastases using diffusion weighted magnetic resonance imaging: comparison with (11)C-methionine PET and bone scintigraphy.

PURPOSE: We evaluated the ability of diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) to detect bone metastasis by comparing the results obtained using this modality with those obtained using (11)C-methionine (MET) positron emission tomography (PET) and bone scintigraphy.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: This retrospective study involved 29 patients with bone metastasis. DWI was obtained using a single-shot echo planar imaging (EPI) sequence with fat suppression using a short inversion time inversion recovery sequence. The detection capabilities of DWI for bone metastases were compared with those of whole body MET PET (in 19 patients) and 99mTc-methylene diphosphonate bone scintigraphy (in 15 patients).

RESULTS: Among the 19 patients who were diagnosed using DWI and PET, the PET identified 39 bone metastases, while the DWI identified 60 metastases out of 69 metastases revealed with conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Among the 15 patients who were diagnosed using DWI and bone scintigraphy, the bone scintigraphy identified 18 bone metastases, while the DWI identified 72 metastases out of 78 metastases revealed with conventional MRI. The overall bone metastasis detection rates were 56.5% for PET, 23.1% for bone scintigraphy and 92.3% for DWI.

CONCLUSION: DWI is a very sensitive method for detecting bone metastasis and is superior to MET PET and bone scintigraphy in terms of its detection capabilities.