TY - JOUR T1 - A Prospective Study Comparing <sup>99m</sup>Tc-Hydroxyethylene-Diphosphonate Planar Bone Scintigraphy and Whole-Body SPECT/CT with <sup>18</sup>F-Fluoride PET/CT and <sup>18</sup>F-Fluoride PET/MRI for Diagnosing Bone Metastases JF - Journal of Nuclear Medicine JO - J Nucl Med SP - 1778 LP - 1785 DO - 10.2967/jnumed.116.189183 VL - 58 IS - 11 AU - Johan Löfgren AU - Jann Mortensen AU - Sine H. Rasmussen AU - Claus Madsen AU - Annika Loft AU - Adam E. Hansen AU - Peter Oturai AU - Karl Erik Jensen AU - Mette Louise Mørk AU - Michala Reichkendler AU - Liselotte Højgaard AU - Barbara M. Fischer Y1 - 2017/11/01 UR - http://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/58/11/1778.abstract N2 - We prospectively evaluated and compared the diagnostic performance of 99mTc-hydroxyethylene-diphosphonate (99mTc-HDP) planar bone scintigraphy (pBS), 99mTc-HDP SPECT/CT, 18F-NaF PET/CT, and 18F-NaF PET/MRI for the detection of bone metastases. Methods: One hundred seventeen patients with histologically proven malignancy referred for clinical pBS were prospectively enrolled. pBS and whole-body SPECT/CT were performed followed by 18F-NaF PET/CT within 9 d. 18F-NaF PET/MRI was also performed in 46 patients. Results: Bone metastases were confirmed in 16 patients and excluded in 101, which was lower than expected. The number of equivocal scans was significantly higher for pBS than for SPECT/CT and PET/CT (18 vs. 5 and 6, respectively; P = 0.004 and 0.01, respectively). When equivocal readings were excluded, no statistically significant difference in sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, or overall accuracy were found when comparing the different imaging techniques. In the per-patient analysis, equivocal scans were either assumed positive for metastases (“pessimistic analysis”) or assumed negative for metastases (“optimistic analysis”). The percentages of misdiagnosed patients for the pessimistic analysis were 21%, 15%, 9%, and 7% for pBS, SPECT/CT, PET/CT, and PET/MRI, respectively. Corresponding figures for the optimistic analysis were 9%, 12%, 5%, and 7%. In those patients identified as having bone metastases according to the reference standard, SPECT/CT, 18F-NaF PET/CT, and PET/MRI detected additional lesions compared with pBS in 31%, 63%, and 71%, respectively. Conclusion: 18F-NaF PET/CT and whole-body SPECT/CT resulted in a significant reduction of equivocal readings compared with pBS, which implies an improved diagnostic confidence. However, the clinical benefit of using, for example, 18F-NaF PET/CT or PET/MRI as compared with SPECT/CT and pBS in this patient population with a relatively low prevalence of bone metastases (14%) is likely limited. This conclusion is influenced by the low prevalence of patients with osseous metastases. There may well be significant differences in the sensitivity of SPECT/CT, PET/CT, and PET/MRI compared with pBS, but a larger patient population or a patient population with a higher prevalence of bone metastases would have to be studied to demonstrate this. ER -