Results

A doctor who specializes in reading images (radiologist) will look for evidence of abnormal bone metabolism on the scans. These areas appear as darker "hot spots" and lighter "cold spots" where the tracers have or haven't accumulated.

Although a bone scan is very sensitive to abnormalities in bone metabolism, it's less helpful in determining the exact cause of the abnormality. If you have a bone scan that shows hot spots, more testing may be needed to determine the cause.