99mTc Pyrophosphate Knee Scintigraphy as a Diagnostic tool for the Tear of the Meniscus of the Knee

Lee, Jae Hyung; Lee, Dong Soo; Choi, Hyung Shik; Lee, Kyung Soo; Bahk, Won Jong; Kim, Jong Ho; Kim, Byung Guk; Lee, Jang Sung

Abstract

We tried to evaluate the possibility that the radionuclide imaging of the knee with 99mTc-pyrophosphate be the diagnostic tool for the patients with the suspected tear of the meniscus of the knee. Among the 142 cases in which 99mTc-pyrophosphate scan was performed, both arthrogram and knee scintigraphy were performed in 60 cases, but only 25 cases were done arthroscopy & arthrotomy for identification to intraarticular legion. We observed 4 types of abnormally increased uptake in the scintigraphy from 16 cases of 19 cases that identified to the meniscus tear. These patterns were seen with 1) diffuse increased uptake, 2) focal increased uptake, 3) plate-like increased uptake in or near the joint space, 4) diffuse increased uptake with plate-like accentuation. Among the 25 cases, 18 cases were found to have consistent scintigraphy & operative findings, 3 cases were observed not tear of meniscus but other legions in the knee joint. And only 4 cases were seen differented to findings of arthrotomy & scintigraphy. We could conclude that the knee scintigraphy with 99mTc-pyrophosphate could be used as a helpful method of the initial evaluation of the internal derangement of the knee in the patients with the suspected tear of the meniscus of the knee.