Interesting Images

Incremental value of single photon emission tomography/computed tomography in 3‑phase bone scintigraphy of an accessory navicular bone Sachin Jain, Sellam Karunanithi, Krishan Kant Agarwal, Ganesh Kumar, Shambo Guha Roy, Madhavi Tripathi Department of Nuclear Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India

ABSTRACT Accessory navicular bone is one of the supernumerary ossicles in the foot. Radiography is non diagnostic in symptomatic cases. Accessory navicular has been reported as a cause of foot pain and is usually associated with flat foot. Increased radio tracer uptake on bone scan is found to be more sensitive. We report a case highlighting the significance of single photon emission tomography/computed tomography in methylene diphosphonate bone scan in the evaluation of symptomatic accessory navicular bone where three phase bone scan is equivocal.

Keywords: Accessory navicular bone, bone scan, single photon emission tomography/computed tomography, 99m Tc‑methylene diphosphonate

A 10‑year‑old male child with bilateral club foot presented to the hospital with pain in his right foot. Plain X‑ray did not reveal any abnormality. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed type II accessory navicular bone in right foot with synchondrosis and surrounding edema. Then patient was referred to our department for three phase bone scan. Blood flow, blood pool and delayed static images of 99mTc‑methylene diphosphonate (MDP) bone scan did not reveal any definite abnormal concentration of radio tracer and was equivocal. However, interestingly, hybrid single photon emission tomography/computed tomography (SPECT/CT) showed a small bony structure medial to right navicular bone with sclerosis and an increased radio tracer uptake suggestive of an accessory navicular bone [Figure 1]. The CT acquisition parameters were 110/130 Kv, 100 mAs, pitch‑1, 512 × 512 matrix using standard filters in a 6 slice multidetector SPECT/CT system. The CT images were reconstructed with reconstruction kernel B60s and 1 mm slice thickness in all three planes. Accessory navicular bone (Os tibialis externum or navicular secundrium) is one of the several supernumerary ossicles of foot. Its incidence is 6‑12%. It is mainly found on the medial Access this article online Quick Response Code: Website: www.ijnm.in DOI: 10.4103/0972-3919.136600

a

b

d

e

c

f

Figure 1: Three phase 99mTc-methylene diphosphonate (MDP) bone scan images. Blood flow (a), blood pool (b) and delayed static (c) images did not reveal any definite abnormal concentration of radio tracer in right foot. Single photon emission tomography (SPECT) (d), computed tomography (CT) (e) and hybrid SPECT/CT (f) images revealing a small bony structure medial to right navicular bone with sclerosis and increased MDP uptake (arrows) which was suggestive of an accessory navicular bone

side of the proximal navicular bone and in continuity with tibialis posterior tendon. Those patients having flat foot are more prone to develop accessory navicular bone. Three distinct types of accessory naviculars are known in the literature.[1] Type 1 accessory navicular is a sesamoid bone in posterior tibial tendon. It accounts for 30% of cases. Type 2 is an accessory ossification center in the tubercle of the navicular bone which accounts for 70% of cases. Cornuate navicular is an anomaly related to the

Address for correspondence: Dr. Madhavi Tripathi, Department of Nuclear Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi ‑ 110 029, India. E‑mail: [email protected]

Indian Journal of Nuclear Medicine | Vol. 29: Issue 3 | July-September, 2014

191

Jain, et al.: SPECT/CT in symptomatic accessory navicular bone

presence of an osseous bridge connecting the navicular bone and the accessory navicular. Type 2 and cornuate navicular are mostly symptomatic and associated with clinical manifestations particularly pain. The indication of three‑phase bone scan is to see if the accessory navicular bone is the cause of symptoms.[2] Radiograph is non‑diagnostic except for showing its presence in symptomatic cases. The mechanism of pain in accessory navicular has been attributed to traumatic or degenerative changes at the synchondrosis or to soft‑tissue inflammation when fused. In radiographic evaluation the 45° eversion oblique view of the foot is the most important view for identifying this condition.[3] High‑resolution ultrasonography is also found to be useful in evaluation of accessory naviculars bone.[4] MRI findings of painful accessory navicular bone usually include persistent edema pattern in the accessory navicular bone and within the synchondrosis.[5] Surgical treatment of painful accessory navicular consists of excision along with its synchondrosis. It has been shown that all symptomatic accessory naviculars bones show positive hyperemia in the initial blood pool phase and positive tracer uptake in delayed skeletal phase.[6] If the uptake in symptomatic accessory navicular is equivalent to adjacent tarsal bones and if there is no hyperemia in the initial phase (as in our case), SPECT/CT should be performed. SPECT/CT in our study showed increased uptake corresponding to the accessory navicular bone. Although the role of 99mTc‑MDP bone scan has been documented,[6] the

192

role of SPECT/CT in accessory navicular bone has not been documented. Our case demonstrated that SPECT/CT provides an incremental value when there is an equivocal three‑phase bone scan in symptomatic accessory navicular bone.

REFERENCES 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Groshar D, Gorenberg M, Ben‑Haim S, Jerusalmi J, Liberson A. Lower extremity scintigraphy: The foot and ankle. Semin Nucl Med 1998;28:62‑77. Romanowski CA, Barrington NA. The accessory navicular: An important cause of medial foot pain. Clin Radiol 1992;46:261‑4. Fredrick LA, Beall DP, Ly JQ, Fish JR. The symptomatic accessory navicular bone: A  report and discussion of the clinical presentation. Curr Probl Diagn Radiol 2005;34:47‑50. Chuang YW, Tsai WS, Chen KH, Hsu HC. Clinical use of high‑resolution ultrasonography for the diagnosis of type II accessory navicular bone. Am J Phys Med Rehabil 2012;91:177‑81. Choi YS, Lee KT, Kang HS, Kim EK. MR imaging findings of painful type II accessory navicular bone: Correlation with surgical and pathologic studies. Korean J Radiol 2004;5:274‑9. Sudhakar P, Sharma AR, Narsimhulu G, Prabhakar V. Diagnostic utility and clinical significance of three phase bone scan in symptomatic accessory navicular bone. Indian J Nucl Med 2006;21:18‑22.

How to cite this article: Jain S, Karunanithi S, Agarwal KK, Kumar G, Roy SG, Tripathi M. Incremental value of single photon emission tomography/computed tomography in 3-phase bone scintigraphy of an accessory navicular bone. Indian J Nucl Med 2014;29:191-2. Source of Support: Nil. Conflict of Interest: None declared.

Indian Journal of Nuclear Medicine | Vol. 29: Issue 3 | July-September, 2014

Copyright of Indian Journal of Nuclear Medicine is the property of Medknow Publications & Media Pvt. Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.

computed tomography in 3-phase bone scintigraphy of an accessory navicular bone.

Accessory navicular bone is one of the supernumerary ossicles in the foot. Radiography is non diagnostic in symptomatic cases. Accessory navicular has...
522KB Sizes 1 Downloads 6 Views