Internal medicine

Radiology

Pathology

Nuclear medicine

Bone scintigraphy

Arthritis

Scintigraphy

Differential diagnosis

Synovitis

Radionuclide imaging

Bone imaging

Medicine

Shanghai Medical Imaging

Objective To investigate the value of radionuclide bone imaging in differential diagnosis of the childhood patients with hip joint pain. Methods Three-phase bone scintigraphy (blood-flow, blood-pool and delayed phases)and pinhole imaging of the hips were performed in 64 patients with unilateral hip joint pain and hip disorders. Results In the 64 patients studied, radionuclide imaging showed that 12 cases was normal, 42 cases presented as synovitis, 10 cases was the local defect or sparseness of the radioactivity in the femoral head. The positive rate of the planar imaging and pinhole imaging was 20% and 100% in the 10 children, respectively. Conclusion Radionuclide bone imaging is highly sensitive to the differential diagnoses of children's synovitis and early Perthes' disease. Three-phase bone scanning and pin-hole imaging may be helpful in increasing positive rate.

The diagnostic value of radionuclide bone imaging in children with hip joint pain