Radionuclide bone imaging in the differential diagnosis of head and neck lesions

The use of bone scintigraphy in temporomandibular joint disorders

“…In this study, all subjects had TMJ tenderness. These findings confirm other studies that suggest that bone scintigraphy may detect early changes in the TMJ of symptomatic patients (Ames et al , 1979; Goldstein and Bloom, 1980; Engelke et al , 1992). Bone scintigraphy was ordered after the clinician weighed the utility in diagnosis and guiding treatment.…”

“…The information provided by bone scintigraphy may guide management and therapy of some patients suffering from chronic pain associated with TMJ disease. Furthermore, this study confirms the findings of other studies (Ames et al , 1979; Pocock et al , 1982; Kircos et al , 1988a, b; Nicolay et al , 1991; Engelke et al , 1992; Behnia et al , 1997) and demonstrates that bone scintigraphy provides information related to remodeling, and inflammation that imaging assessing structure, including tomography, CT scan and MRI do not.…”

“…Bone scans have been used to diagnose a variety of lesions about the head and neck (Ames et al , 1979; Goldstein and Bloom, 1980; Epstein and Ruprecht, 1982; Pocock et al , 1982; Craemer and Ficara, 1984; Epstein, Graves and Higgins , 1987; Krasnow et al , 1987; Oesterreich et al , 1987; Kircos et al , 1988; Herbosa and Rotskoff, 1991; Engelke et al , 1992; Datz, 1993; Stavropoulos and Ord, 1993; Ota et al , 1996; Behnia, Motamedi and Tehranchi , 1997; Glaser et al , 1997; Huang, Pogrel and Kaban , 1997; Kuni and duCret, 1997; Paulsen, Rabol and Sorensen , 1998). The utility of bone scintigraphy for evaluation of the TMJ has been presented in a number of case reports, including assessment of condylar remodeling including growth (Behnia et al , 1997; Paulsen et al , 1998) and resorption (Huang et al , 1997); evaluation of the viability of a bone graft (Behnia et al , 1997); osteochondroma of the condyle (Herbosa and Rotskoff, 1991); metastatic disease to the condyle, that was identified on a bone scan 2 months prior to bone biopsy which revealed breast metastases (Stavropoulos and Ord, 1993); and to predict future change in the structure (Engelke et al , 1992).…”

“…Twenty‐one patients with suspected benign or malignant lesions of the jaw, including the TMJ, were evaluated clinically, subjected to bone scan, and followed by histological examination (Ames et al , 1979). Eleven of 21 patients had positive scans at the site of biopsy‐proven disease, and in three cases the bone scan was the only diagnostic test that was positive prior to surgical intervention (Ames et al , 1979).…”