Accuracy of SPECT bone scintigraphy in diagnosis of meniscal tears

Introduction: Scintigraphy has been considered as a useful tool in the assessment of meniscal tears. Our objective was to assess the accuracy of single photon emission tomography (SPECT), using MRI as the gold standard, in the diagnosis of meniscal tears. Materials and Methods: Between January 2003 and February 2005, 48 patients were studied with SPECT and MRI. Results: The respective sensitivity rate, specificity rate, and positive and negative predictive accuracies of SPECT were 78 %, 88 %, 80 %, and 86 %. Conclusion: SPECT is a valuable imaging technique and could be considered as competitive for MRI in diagnosis of meniscal tears. SPECT is specially a useful alternative when MRI is unavailable or unsuitable and it is beneficial when more possible accuracy is desired (when MRI results are either inconclusive or contradict with other clinical data).