Clinical evaluation of the bone marrow imaging agent 99Tcm-phytate in the detection of bone metastases

The aims of this study were to assess whether 99 Tc m -phytate can detect metastatic skeletal lesions, and to compare it with 99 Tc m -methylene diphosphonate ( 99 Tc m -MDP) and 99 Tc m -labelled human serum albumin nanocolloids ( 99 Tc m -NC). Twenty-four patients with multiple bony metastases, investigated by 99 Tc m -MDP whole-body scintigraphy, underwent 99 Tc m -phytate bone marrow imaging. A separate bone marrow scintigram with 99 Tc m -NC was performed in 20 of the patients. All of the metastatic lesions detected on the 99 Tc m -phytate scintigrams exhibited photon-abundant foci only. Most of the 99 Tc m -phytate scintigrams detected fewer metastatic lesions than the corresponding bone scintigrams. Visual comparison of the 99 Tc m -NC images showed that 13 of 20 99 Tc m -NC images were superior to the 99 Tc m -phytate images in the detection of metastatic involvement of the skeleton. Thus 99 Tc m -phytate should not be used as a bone marrow imaging agent for the detection of skeletal metastases.