Applications of bone scintigraphy in ankylosing spondylitis

Limited Diagnostic Value of Unilateral Sacroiliitis in Scintigraphy in Assessing Axial Spondyloarthritis

“…Our findings are in concordance with the few scintigraphy studies that have so far reported on unilateral sacroiliitis (6, including 104 patients with axial SpA and 36 controls) [7][8][9][10][11][12] . Sensitivities of unilateral sacroiliitis in these studies were low, ranging from 6.3% 10 to 33.3% 12 , while specificities were high, ranging between 89.5% 8 and 94.1% 7 , resulting in a pooled LR of 2.1.…”

The diagnostic value of scintigraphy in assessing sacroiliitis in ankylosing spondylitis: a systematic literature research

“…AS, ankylosing spondylitis; MLBP, mechanical low back pain; NA, not available.*AS: information about disease duration given in six studies,23 28 34 37 46 48 about gender distribution in nine studies,28 34–38 40 46 48 about age given in 10 studies,23 28 34 – 38 40 46 48 and about HLA-B27 in seven studies 23 24 28 35 37 38 47

†Suspected sacroiliitis: information about disease duration given in two studies (mean disease duration 2.3 years53 and 3.8 years46), about gender distribution in five studies,29 42 44 51 53 about age in five studies,29 31 46 51 53 and about HLA-B27 in five studies 24 29 42 50 52

…”

“…*AS: information about disease duration given in six studies,23 28 34 37 46 48 about gender distribution in nine studies,28 34–38 40 46 48 about age given in 10 studies,23 28 34 – 38 40 46 48 and about HLA-B27 in seven studies 23 24 28 35 37 38 47…”

“…Sensitivity could be further calculated for those patients with AS with x -ray grade 2 or 3 findings (excluding grade 4) for 244 patients with AS from 11 studies23 28 35 – 37 39 – 41 46 – 48), 160 of these had positive findings by scintigraphy resulting in a sensitivity of 65.57%.…”

“…Sensitivity could also be calculated for 71 patients with AS with x -ray grade 4 findings (complete ankylosis of the SIJs) from 10 studies23 24 28 36 37 39 – 41 47 48). Only five of these 71 patients with AS had positive findings by scintigraphy, which translates into a sensitivity of 7.04%.…”