The value of ~(99m)Tc methylene diphosphonate bone scintigraphy in diagnosing relapsing polychondritis

摘要

Relapsing polychondritis (RP) is a recurrent disease involving cartilage mainly of the ear, nose, larynx, trachea, and bronchus. The typical manifestations of the disease in the ear and nose can be easily recognized, but the symptoms could be ignored or easily confused with those of other diseases when the cartilage of other sites is involved. Thus, it is necessary to develop a new technique for the diagnosis of this disease. Few cases of abnormal accumulation of radioactivity at cartilage shown by ~(99m)Tc methylene diphosphonate (MDP) bone scintigraphy are described in the literature. In this report, we present 4 patients of whom 3 had positive findings on ~(99m)Tc MDP bone scintigraphy with an assessment of ~(99m)Tc MDP bone scintigraphy in the diagnosis of RP.