Forty-two patients suspected of having stress fractures were evaluated
by serial roentgenograms and by one total-body scan with detailed views of
suspicious areas. Stress fracture was the ultimate clinical diagnosis in
twenty-one patients, and in fifteen of them the roentgenograms were normal
while the scintigram was positive. The false negative rate for the
roentgenograms was 71 per cent. In eleven of the fifteen patients, the
roentgenograms eventually became positive. There were five positive
scintigrams from causes other than stress fracture, giving a false positive
rate for scintigraphy of 24 per cent. The bones with stress fractures
included the metatarsals, calcaneus, tibia, femur, and fibula.