title: Evaluation of musculoskeletal sepsis with indium-111 white blood cell imaging.
abstract: The detection of musculoskeletal sepsis, especially following joint replacement, continues to be a challenging problem. Often, even with invasive diagnostic evaluation, the diagnosis of infection remains uncertain. This is a report on the first 55 Indium-111 white blood cell (WBC) images performed in 39 patients for the evaluation of musculoskeletal sepsis. There were 40 negative and 15 positive Indium-111 WBC images. These were correlated with operative culture and tissue pathology, aspiration culture, and clinical findings. Thirty-eight images were performed for the evaluation of possible total joint sepsis (8 positive and 30 negative images); 17 for the evaluation of nonarthroplasty-related musculoskeletal sepsis (7 positive and 10 negative images). Overall, there were 13 true-positive, 39 true-negative, two false-positive, and one false-negative images. Indium-111 WBC imaging is a sensitive and specific means of evaluating musculoskeletal sepsis, especially following total joint replacement.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001170:Arthritis, Infectious / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007204:Indium; D007595:Joint Prosthesis; D007962:Leukocytes; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011868:Radioisotopes; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging; D013530:Surgical Wound Infection / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*
chemical_list: D011868:Radioisotopes; D007204:Indium