Musculoskeletal system

Ordinary X-ray is the main imaging modality regarding the skeletal system. This technique gives an excellent overview of the bony structures and joints and is used mainly to rule out fractures, pathological bone lesions and degenerative or inflammatory joint changes. X-ray is also used to characterise fractures, degree of mis-alignment of fractures and to visualise healing processes. For whole body screening purposes NM is preferred.

X-ray and NM are often combined with other modalities (CT and MRI) when a specific lesion is found in the skeletal system.

X-ray has very little place in soft-tissue imaging because of low inherent contrast and inability to differentiate between various structures. In these cases CT, ultrasound, and especially MRI will provide useful information.