Nonosseous abnormalities are often seen on bone scans and can be related to a wide variety of pathology ranging across vascular, infection, and inflammatory etiology. Diffuse soft tissue radiotracer uptake on bone scans is typically attributed to renal or metabolic derangements. Calciphylaxis is the deposition of calcium in small blood vessels, skin, and other organs leading to vascular obstruction and skin necrosis. It is a rare disorder with unknown pathophysiology. Diagnosis of calciphylaxis is challenging and requires an interdisciplinary approach including clinical findings, laboratory results, medical imaging, and skin biopsy. An early diagnosis is important as the disease is associated with high morbidity and mortality. The purpose of this review article is to highlight the role of bone scintigraphy in the evaluation of calciphylaxis and to correlate the findings with other imaging modalities and histopathology.
Keywords: 99m Tc MDP bone scan; ESRD; calciphylaxis; computed tomography; histopathology.
The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, permitting unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction so long as the original work is properly cited. ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ).