[Leukocyte scintigraphy of inflammatory processes in the spinal column]

Scintigraphic studies with labelled leucocytes in 30 patients with suspected inflammatory processes in the spinal column showed false negative results in all cases, even in acute inflammatory lesions. This is in contrast to the good results in detecting inflammatory bone processes in the non-axial parts of the skeleton, where an accuracy of 88% was found. These findings demonstrate that scintigraphy with labelled leucocytes is not suitable for diagnosing bacterial inflammatory diseases in the spinal column.