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Medical AI Inquiry: You was designed to assist in medical decision-making based on the provided user questions. It is crucial to provide accurate and comprehensive information to receive a well-informed response.  Labels: OBJECTIVE, METHODS, RESULTS. Meshes: Discitis, Female, Gallium Radioisotopes, Humans, Intervertebral Disc, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Middle Aged, Multimodal Imaging, Radiopharmaceuticals, Reproducibility of Results, Retrospective Studies, Sensitivity and Specificity, Technetium Tc 99m Medronate, Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon, Tomography, X-Ray Computed.
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Is bone and Gallium Single-Photon Emission Computed Tomography-Computed Tomography Equivalent to Magnetic Resonance Imaging in the Diagnosis of Infectious Spondylodiscitis : A Retrospective Study? Context: Spondylodiscitis has historically been a difficult clinical diagnosis. Two imaging techniques that address this problem are magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and combined bone ( This retrospective study assessed all patients who underwent a bone or gallium SPECT-CT of the spine to assess for infectious spondylodiscitis from January 1, 2010, to May 2, 2012, at a single tertiary care centre. Thirty-four patients (23 men; average 62 ± 14 years of age) were included. The results of the bone or gallium SPECT-CT were compared against MRI for all patients in the cohort who underwent an MRI within 12 weeks of the SPECT-CT. A diagnosis of spondylodiscitis in the discharge summary was considered the reference standard, and was based on a combination of clinical scenario, response to therapy, imaging, or microbiology. Spondylodiscitis was diagnosed in 18 patients and excluded in 16. Bone or gallium SPECT-CT and MRI had similar (P > .05; κ = 0.74) sensitivities (0.94 vs 0.94), specificities (1.00 vs 1.00), positive predictive values (1.00 vs 1.00), negative predictive values (0.94 vs 0.80), and accuracies (0.97 vs 0.95) when compared to the reference standard.
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Although MRI remains the initial modality of choice in diagnosing spondylodiscitis, bone and gallium SPECT-CT appears diagnostically equivalent and should be considered a viable supplementary or alternative imaging modality particularly if there is contraindication or inaccessibility to MRI. Final Decision: yes