Saturday, February 23, 2019

Shoulder periprosthetic infections - is isotope scanning useful in the diagnosis?

Labeled white blood cell/bone marrow single-photon emission computed tomography with computed tomography fails in diagnosing chronic periprosthetic shoulder joint infection


These authors investigated the use of combined labeled leukocyte (WBC) and technetium 99m sulfur colloid bone marrow imaging (WBC/BM) for the evaluation of shoulder periprosthetic infections.

Of the 49 patients who underwent a WBC/BM scan, 29 (59%) were revised. Infection was present in 11 patients, in whom 2 WBC/BM scans were true positive. The WBC/BM scan in 9 patients was false negative. The remaining 18 patients all had a true negative WBC/BM scan. WBC/BM showed a sensitivity 0.18 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.00-0.41) and specificity 1.00 (95% CI, 1.00-1.00) in detecting  shoulder PJI. The positive predictive value was 1.00 (95% CI, 1.00-1.00), and negative predictive value was 0.67 (95% CI, 0.49-0.84). No patients infected with Cutibacterium (formerly Propionibacterium) acnes resulted in a positive WBC/BM, nor had they preoperative or perioperative signs of infection.

Comment: This study provides additional evidence that Propionibacterium in the shoulder do not incite the same inflammatory response as is seen in periprosthetic infections in the hip and knee, where isotope scans are helpful in the diagnosis.
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