Comparative Study between 99mTc-diphosphonate Bone Scintigraphy and 18F-fluoride PET or PET/CT in Terms of Clinical Usefulness and Cost-effectiveness in Detection of Bone Disorders

18F-fluoride ion(18F-NaF)first introduced by Blau in 1962 was approved in 1972 by the FDA, and 99mTc-diphosphonate becomes the standard bone imaging radiopharmaceutical, with bone scintigraphy performed more than 430000 times a year in Japan. High resolution, high sensitivity and multi-slice PET device appeared from the first half of the 1990's, and systemic three dimensional tomograms became easily obtainable, making it possible for bone PET to search for systemic bony lesions within a short time. In the Japanese Society of Nuclear Medicine Working Group, we evaluated bone PET and PET/CT as compared with bone scintigraphy in three institutions during a two-year period to determine the clinical usefulness and cost effectiveness of bone PET and PET/CT. Bone PET and PET/CT showed a significant superiority over bone scintigraphy in 67 patients with lytic and sclerotic malignant and benign lesions. We consider based on other studies and our results that bone PET and PET/CT will become routine bone imaging modalities in future.