Nuclear medicine imaging of foot injuries

Abstract

In sports medicine, foot disorders present a significant clinical challenge due to the complex anatomy and function of the foot. Injuries are complex involving soft tissue as well as bony structures. Bone scintigraphy is a sensitive technique, which provides essential functional information which correlates better with clinical symptoms and treatment response than anatomical abnormalities. It is a useful tool to detect conditions affecting the bony structures of the foot in an early phase, but can also be helpful in the initial evaluation of soft tissue injuries. MRI though remains better in delineating most soft tissue injuries. The emergence of SPECT-CT has increased the accuracy of bone scintigraphy. This is particularly true for the recently developed hybrid systems, which are capable of acquiring high-resolution multislice CT images. Bone SPECT-CT has shown to have incremental value in orthopedic conditions and sports injuries. However, one should be aware of the fact that available evidence concerning the clinical value of bone SPECT-CT in sports injuries in the foot is scarce; especially the specificity of the technique needs to be further elucidated.