Bone scintigraphy in patients with bipartite patella

Area of Science:

• Orthopedics
• Radiology
• Nuclear Medicine

Background:

• Bipartite patella is a common condition, often asymptomatic.
• Differentiating symptomatic from asymptomatic bipartite patella is crucial for appropriate treatment.
• Bone scintigraphy is a diagnostic tool used in evaluating bone abnormalities.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the diagnostic value of bone scintigraphy in differentiating symptomatic bipartite patella from asymptomatic bipartite patella.
• To determine if scintigraphic findings correlate with clinical symptoms in bipartite patella.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective analysis of 37 bipartite patellae (15 symptomatic, 22 asymptomatic) using bone scintigraphy.
• Classification of scintigraphic activity into four groups based on uptake patterns.
• Statistical analysis (Fisher's exact test) to compare positive scan rates between symptomatic and asymptomatic groups.

Main Results:

• Abnormally high scintigraphic uptake was observed in both symptomatic (81.0%) and asymptomatic (100%) bipartite patella after excluding physiological uptake overlaps.
• Excluding Group A, 84.6% of all bipartite patellae showed positive bone scans.
• No statistically significant difference in positive bone scan proportions was found between symptomatic and asymptomatic groups (P = 0.5457).

Conclusions:

• Bone scintigraphy demonstrates high uptake in both symptomatic and asymptomatic bipartite patella.
• The diagnostic value of bone scintigraphy in differentiating symptomatic from asymptomatic bipartite patella is limited.
• Scintigraphic findings alone should not be the sole basis for considering surgical intervention in bipartite patella.