The clinical comparison of skeletal imaging agents.

99-MTc-methylene diophosphonate from two manufacturers was compared with 99mTc-ethane hydroxy diphosphonate in a randomised trial to assess the relative blood clearances and the subsequent image quality. The 99mTc-methylene diphosphonate preparations were found to be superior with respect to both blood clearance and subjectively assessed image quality, particularly when the interval between injection and scanning was three hours. Bone/soft tissue ratios did not mirror the highly significant qualitative comparisons of image quality.