The hot skull: malignant or feminine?

Diffusely increased uptake in the calvarium on bone scintigraphy (a hot skull) is often present in patients with bone metastases and metabolic diseases. Excluding these known facts the prevalence of the hot skull and its relation with malignancy and, more specifically, with breast carcinoma have been studied in 673 patients. In women, the hot skull is clearly related to malignancy and to a lesser extent to breast carcinoma. However, another remarkable feature of the hot skull is its predominance in women in general (compared to men) and, therefore, the data suggest that the hot skull can also represent a normal variant of the female skull. We conclude that the hot skull has no clinical value in screening protocols.