title: Fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography findings in spondylodiscitis: preliminary results.
abstract: Nuclear medicine procedures can be helpful in diagnosing spine infections. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the findings of positron emission tomography with fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (FGD-PET) in the detection of spondylodiscitis. We performed FDG-PET in 16 patients with suspected spondylodiscitis. All the patients were operated and underwent histopathological examination. The FDG-PET findings were graded and evaluated by two independent nuclear medicine physicians. Of the 16 patients, 12 had a histopathologically confirmed spondylodiscitis. In all these 12 patients, FDG-PET was true-positive. In the four patients without spondylodiscitis, FDG-PET showed three true-negative and one false-positive result. In spondylodiscitis, the mean standard uptake value (SUV) of FDG was 7.5 (SD+/-3.8). The PET scans depicted the paravertebral soft tissue involvement in cases of spondylodiscitis. Our first results showed that FDG-PET is a very sensitive imaging procedure in the detection of spondylodiscitis. Compared to other nuclear medicine procedures, PET enables a rapid imaging with acceptable radiation dose and high spatial resolution.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedics, University of Bonn, Germany. a.schmitz@uni-bonn.de
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schmitz
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Risse
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Grünwald
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gassel
authors.forename: H J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Biersack
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Schmitt
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015299:Discitis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014055:Tomography, Emission-Computed
chemical_list: D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18