Objective To investigate the feasibility of whole body diffusion weighted imaging （WB-DWI） in screening metastasis. Methods WB-DWI was performed in 24 patients diagnosed with various types of primary tumors. The three-dimensional maximum intensity projection reconstruction and black-and-white flip technique were used to observe metastatic lesions

and the results were compared with those of bone scintigraphy. Results By WB-DWI scanning sequence at b = 800 s/mm2

all the bone lesions found by bone scintigraphy in the cohort were well identified

and other lesions of soft tissue and organs were also well demonstrated. Its screening capability was equivalent with bone scintigraphy in screening metastases in bones （P = 0.062）. Conclusion WB-DWI was practicable with the parameter settings attempted in metastases screening.