Bone scans detect abnormalities of the insides of bones, such as osteoporosis, stress fractures (breaks) or tumours (growths).
Techniques of bone scanning
Bone density scanning
This type of scan is used to detect and measure osteoporosis (bone thinning). These scans are painless and nothing is injected into the body.
Bone scintigraphy
This type of scan is used to detect otherwise invisible stress fractures. It is also used to look for bone tumours. Small amounts of a radio-active substance is injected into the body and concentrates itself at areas of enhanced bony activity. The scan takes several hours to do.
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