The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of bone scintigraphy (BS) and radiolabeled white blood cell scintigraphy (WBCS) in detecting septic activity in the flat bones of the jaw. A retrospective analysis was conducted using 38 studies of combined BS plus WBCS: 33 of them 3-phase BS and 36 of them 2-phase WBCS. These studies were performed on 34 patients, 19 women and 15 men with a mean age of 56 years (22-79), who presented with suspected mandibular osteomyelitis, either acute or chronic exacerbation. The results were compared with histologic findings (55%) or with a minimum clinical/radiologic follow-up of 6 months (average, 21 months), when biopsy results were not available. BS showed a sensitivity of 100%, a specificity of 6.7%, a positive predictive value of 62%, and a negative predictive value of 100%. For WBCS, the corresponding values were as follows: 73.7%, 78.6%, 82%, and 69%. Accuracy was 63.2% for BS and 94.7% for WBCS. WBCS has proven to be a useful test for detecting septic activity in the jaw bone, being more effective than BS alone, which under certain circumstances, can return a very high false-positive rate.

A 66-year-old male patient, with chronic respiratory disease and right colon resection in March 2017 for colon low-grade adenocarcinoma was assessed for recurrence suggested by elevated levels of tumor marker and no evidence of oncological disease by CT scan. 18F-FDG PET/CT showed bilateral multiple peripheral FDG-avid foci that matched with a peripheral predominant ground-glass opacities (GGOs) observed in lower lobes and multiple FDG-positive enlarged lymph nodes were also identified in the mediastinum. Patient was hospitalized in March 14th 2020, one day after PET/CT scan, with cough, wheezing and fever, and was treated with anti-inflammatory drugs. A first SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR in March 15th resulted as negative and patient was treated with antibiotic therapy lead to an improvement of respiratory symptoms. PET/CT scan was interpreted as a pneumonia foci. A deteriorating patient condition was observed, with respiratory symptomatology progression, fatigue and D-Dimer elevation and a new RT-PCR resulted positive. A week after PET/CT scan, hospitalization in intensive care unit was necessary for rapidly disease progression and severe respiratory distress syndrome and patient died four days later.