Introduction: This study aimed to identify a follow-up modality that can be used to evaluate therapeutic responses in patients receiving treatment for brucellar sacroillitis and to determine whether antibiotherapy can be stopped. Methodology: A total of 32 patients with sacroiliac joint involvement demonstrated via magnetic resonance imaging or bone scintigraphy were followed up and treated. Patients received 200 mg/day of doxycycline and 600-900 mg/day of rifampicin for 3-21 months, and 1 g/day of streptomycin for 21 days. Results: The mean age of the 32 patients involved was 21.81 ± 4.09. In total, 10/32 patients did not complete therapy, and the remaining 22 patients received combination antibiotic treatment for a mean of 8.95 ± 4.34 months. Of the 22 patients, 15 underwent MRI, and 7 of them did not consent to MRI. Similarly, 17 patients were followed up by bone scintigraphy, and 5 patients did not have scintigraphy results. In 9/17 patients followed up with bone scintigraphy, sacroiliitis findings were found to reduce after a mean of 7.44 ± 3.71 months, whereas in 12/15 patients on whom MRI was performed, there were no active sacroiliitis findings for a mean of 6.95 ± 2.83 months. Conclusions: While active involvement findings in bone scintigraphy were observed for a longer period in scintigraphy images, active sacroiliitis findings disappeared in a relatively shorter period of time with MRI. Therefore, we have demonstrated that high-resolution MRI is a very sensitive technique compared to scintigraphy.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.