Relationship between blood flow and radiostrontium uptake in the healing bone fracture.

The healing of a diaphyseal tibia fracture was followed in the rat. Callus formation, blood flow and Sr-85 uptake were assessed by a ratio comparison of the fractured to the contralateral side. No correlation was found between blood flow and Sr-85 deposition in the callus and the adjacent bone of the same extremity. It is concluded that the deposition of a radiopharmaceutical in bone is primarily related to the presence of calcifiable organic bone matrix and only secondarily to the bone formation rate and to variations in the local blood flow.