Bone scanning of the spine and thorax in idiopathic thoracic scoliosis.
Bone scanning of the spine and the anterior thorax was performed in 5 girls with recently diagnosed, progressive, thoracic, idiopathic scoliosis. In all patients, the scan of the spine showed a homogenous isotope uptake which was considered to suggest that, at least during the early stages of the development of the spinal deformity, there are no obvious disturbances of the metabolic activity of the affected vertebrae in idiopathic, thoracic scoliosis. On the contrary, in all patients there were differences in isotope activity between ribs on the left and right side at the costochondral area. In 4 of the patients, the higher uptake was found in the ribs on the concave side, which might indicate that the longitudinal growth of the ribs on this side was increased as compared with that of the ribs on the opposite side. Because of the restricted number of patients allowed to be included in this study, this observation could not be verified statistically and has to be considered preliminary, in need of verification as well as of further investigation.
D000293:Adolescent; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging; D012600:Scoliosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D013131:Spine / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D013896:Thoracic Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D013909:Thorax / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*