Three-phase bone studies in hemiplegia with reflex sympathetic dystrophy and the effect of disuse

Eighty-five patients with cerebral vascular accidents were assessed with three-phase bone scintigraphy of the hands and with whole-body delayed bone imaging. Nine patients (10%) had normal three-phase bone images. Fifty-five patients (65%) showed decreased blood flow and blood-pool images of the hands and wrists with normal delayed bone scintigrams, indicating the effect of paralysis or disuse. Twenty-one patients (25%) had diffuse increased uptake with periarticular accentuation, felt to be bone-scintigraphic evidence of reflex sympathetic dystrophy of the hands and wrists; in two patients this occurred before its clinical appearance. Thirteen of the 21 reflex sympathetic dystrophy syndromes (RDS)-involved limbs (62%) had increased blood flow, whereas 8 (38%) had decreased flow. Gross limb blood flow appears to be related to the degree of muscle activity, but flow may be altered by the presence of sympathetic changes. A possible dissociation between whole-limb flow and bone blood flow in paralyzed limbs involved with RDS is discussed. The elbow was involved in only one case, and a true "shoulder-hand" distribution was seen in only 11 of 21 cases (52%). Five patients (6%) had leg involvement on whole-body imaging. Traumatic synovitis of the wrist, and trauma to subluxed shoulders, could be recognized on the delayed study.