Usefulness of radionuclide bone and joint imaging in vibration disease

Bone and joint imaging with 99mTc-MDP was carried out in 17 patients with vibration disease. A comparison was made between bone scintigraphy and radiography in the regions frequently involved: cervical spine, elbow joint, wrist joint, and bone of hand. These results suggested that radiography was superior to scintigraphy in the detection of osseous changes of cervical spine, while scintigraphy was superior to radiography in the case of wrist joint and bone of hand. 99mTc-MDP joint imaging was found to be more sensitive in the detection of involvement in peripheral joints (especially metacarpal, proximal, and distal interphalangeal joints) than radiography, but it is nonspecific. Therefore, regions of increased uptake should be radiographed to determine whether other causative factors exist.