Background:Making an accurate diagnosis of bone metastasis earlier is very important for lung cancer clinical stage and making treatment plans.SPECT/CT fusion imaging provides more information than SPECT in diagnosing bone metastases from benign lesions of the solitary abnormal radioactive nuclide distribution in patients with lung cancer.Purpose:We want to investigate the value of SPECT/CT fusion imaging in identifying solitary bone metastases in patients with lung cancer.Methods:196 patients with lung cancer

whose bone scintigraphy demonstrated solitary abnormal radioactive nuclide distribution

were selected.SPECT/CT was employed for those lesions.SPECT and SPECT/CT bone images were analyzed by two seasoned nuclear medicine physicians separately.Each lesion was diagnosed with metastasis and benign lesion.The diagnosed results were compared with the final diagnosis.Results:196 patients with lung cancer had 196 lesions

112 bone metastatic lesions were proved to be bone metastatic criterion

89 metastatic lesions were found by SPECT

and 106 metastatic lesions were found by SPECT/CT.The sensitivity

specificity and accuracy of SPECT/CT and SPECT in the diagnosis of bone metastasis were 94.6%(106/112)

92.9%(78/84)

93.9%(184/196); 79.5%(89/112)

78.6%(78/84) and 79.1%(155/196)

respectively.The sensitivity

specificity and accuracy of SPECT/CT were higher than those of SPECT(χ2=11.25

P<0.05; χ2=7.00

P<0.05; χ2=18.35

P<0.05).Conclusions:SPECT/CT fusion imaging provided more information than SPECT imaging in distinguishing metastases from benign lesions of the solitary abnormal radioactive nuclide distribution in patients with lung cancer and improved the accuracy of the diagnosis of solitary bone metastasis of lung cancer.