Bone scan of a rib stress fracture

A bone scan of the chest wall has excellent sensitivity to diagnose rib stress fractures. A fracture is indicated by an area of increased radionuclide uptake (dark area on image above). Imaging is useful in cases where there is doubt about the diagnosis or when a definitive diagnosis is required to make decisions about returning to competition. The need for imaging will vary based on the clinician's experience managing rib stress fractures.