Sacroiliac joint uptake ratios in inflammatory bowel disease: relationship to back pain and to activity of bowel disease.

Sacroiliac uptake ratios based on 99Tcm methylene diphosphonate images were calculated in 14 patients with ankylosing spondylitis, 23 patients with non-specific backache, 33 patients with inflammatory bowel disease (ulcerative colitis 19, Crohn's disease 14) and 33 control subjects. Twenty-eight of the control subjects were patients referred from a breast cancer clinic. In the control subjects, and in 20 patients with inflammatory bowel disease who did not have back pain, sacroiliac ratios decreased significantly with increasing age (p less than 0.001 and p less than 0.01 respectively). Sacroiliac uptake ratios were significantly higher in ankylosing spondylitis than in patients with non-specific backache. Seven of the 14 patients with ankylosing spondylitis had higher sacroiliac ratios than any recorded in the control subjects. Eleven patients with inflammatory bowel disease had abnormally high sacroiliac uptake ratios; ten of these patients had back pain. Increased sacroiliac joint uptake in such patients may reflect early sacroiliitis. No relationship was detected between sacroiliac uptake and the activity of the bowel disease. Sacroiliac uptake ratios were significantly higher in the inflammatory bowel disease patients suffering from back pain than in age and sex matched patients with (a) inflammatory bowel disease but no back pain or (b) non-specific backache.

Radionuclide imaging of the neck in rheumatoid arthritis.

Blind marking was used to assess radionuclide neck images obtained with technetium-99m methylene diphosphonate in 28 patients with rheumatoid arthritis and 12 with cervical degenerative joint disease (spondylosis). Eleven out of the 16 rheumatoid arthritis patients who had neck pain when imaged showed enhanced uptake in the region of the atlantoaxial and temporomandibular joints. In contrast, no patient with cervical spondylosis and only one rheumatoid arthritis patient without neck pain had high uptake in either joint. Changes in uptake in this region on repeat imaging correlated significantly (P less than 0.01) with changes in pain. Patients with rheumatoid arthritis, with or without neck pain, and with cervical spondylosis showed similar patterns of radiological abnormality in the cervical spine. No detailed correlation was detected between radionuclide and radiographic findings. Radionuclide abnormalities were seen in the middle and lower cervical spine in both rheumatoid arthritis and cervical spondylosis. An abnormal radionuclide image of the middle or lower neck is thus of little value except when no degenerative change is present on the radiograph. An abnormal radionuclide image of the upper neck may be a useful indication of inflammation.