Faculty Collaboration Database

Painful spondylolysis or spondylolisthesis studied by radiography and single-photon emission computed tomography. Radiology 1985 Jan;154(1):207-11

Date

01/01/1985

Pubmed ID

3155479

DOI

10.1148/radiology.154.1.3155479

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-0022006979 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   140 Citations

Abstract

Planar bone scintigraphy (PBS) and single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) were compared in 19 adults with radiographic evidence of spondylolysis and/or spondylolisthesis. SPECT was more sensitive than PBS when used to identify symptomatic patients and sites of "painful" defects in the pars interarticularis. In addition, SPECT allowed more accurate localization than PBS. In 6 patients, spondylolysis or spondylolisthesis was unrelated to low back pain, and SPECT images of the posterior neural arch were normal. The authors conclude that when spondylolysis or spondylolisthesis is the cause of low back pain, pars defects are frequently heralded by increased scintigraphic activity which is best detected and localized by SPECT.

Author List

Collier BD, Johnson RP, Carrera GF, Meyer GA, Schwab JP, Flatley TJ, Isitman AT, Hellman RS, Zielonka JS, Knobel J

Author

Jeffrey P. Schwab MD Adjunct Professor in the Orthopaedic Surgery department at Medical College of Wisconsin

MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Adolescent
Adult
Back Pain
Female
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Spondylolisthesis
Spondylolysis
Tomography, Emission-Computed
Tomography, X-Ray Computed