Paget's Jargon Buster I - J

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Insufficiency fracture: A type of stress fracture, which is the result of normal stresses on abnormal bone.

Isotope bone scan: A radionuclide bone scan, also known as a scintigram or nuclear medicine bone scan, can determine which bones have Paget’s disease and how active the disease is. The scan involves an injection into a vein of a small and safe amount of a mildly radioactive chemical called an isotope. This travels to the bones via the bloodstream and after around 3 hours a ‘gamma’ camera scans the skeleton to produce an image. Abnormal bone absorbs more radioactivity than normal bone, so these areas will be highlighted on the scan results.

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Jigsaw pattern: The disorganised bone of Paget’s disease can appear as a ‘jigsaw pattern’ on an x-ray. Also referred to as the ‘cotton wool’ or ‘mosaic pattern’.

Joint: The junction between the ends of two adjacent bones.