Journal of nuclear medicine : official publication, Society of Nuclear Medicine
-
Comparative Study
Usefulness of 99mTc-ciprofloxacin (infecton) scan in diagnosis of chronic orthopedic infections: comparative study with 99mTc-HMPAO leukocyte scintigraphy.
99mTc-labeled ciprofloxacin (infecton) has been developed for detecting infectious foci, which localize in high concentrations in living bacteria. Other studies performed with various infections in animals and humans have found that infecton is a promising agent with better specificity for bacterial infections than white blood cell (WBC) scans. In this study, we evaluated the efficacy of infecton scintigraphy for detecting chronic bone and joint infections. ⋯ Infecton is a useful agent for detecting infectious foci in bones and joints. Moreover, the infecton scan seems to be a more powerful tool in diagnosing vertebral infections than WBC scintigraphy.