Musculoskeletal Lesions: Nuclear Medicine Imaging Pitfalls

Abstract

In musculoskeletal nuclear medicine imaging, unexpected pitfalls leading to suboptimal or misleading images are rare and may occur due to several factors. Generally, these unexpected outcomes are not life-threatening, but they cause time delay from repeated examinations, additional cost, and unnecessary radiation exposure to the patient. Pitfalls in nuclear medicine imaging can be categorized into radionuclide production and detection, human error, and patient-related factors. To achieve high-quality diagnostic nuclear medicine images, details of the patient’s history, appropriate management of radionuclides, proper maintenance of imaging devices, equipment calibration, correct patient records, and physician’s expertise are essential. In this chapter, reviews of cases are used to illustrate a variety of unexpected or unusual scan pitfalls in nuclear medicine imaging.