Imaging of bone and joint infections

In recent years, world interest in bone infection has centered on investigating the potential of the newer imaging methods for detecting early osteomyelitis and on their sensitivity and specificity in evaluating both the acute disease and recurrence of chronic disease and the development of infection in prostheses. No revolutionary new techniques were forthcoming since the advent of MR imaging, and the past 12 months have seen a decline in new analyses, presumably because most researchers have now made up their minds about the relative imaging modalities. Interest lately has been mainly in the imaging of chronic (granulomatous) disease and patterns in children and in drug abuse patients. Because of the importance of differentiating neuropathy from infection in the diabetic foot, research is also active in this field, particularly in relation to dynamic scintigraphy. Interesting observations continue to emerge on infection resulting from the depressing spread of drug abuse and immunosuppression.