Adult ; Age Factors ; Aged ; Arthralgia/diagnostic imaging* ; Arthralgia/etiology ; Arthralgia/physiopathology ; Arthritis/diagnostic imaging* ; Arthritis/etiology ; Arthritis/physiopathology ; Behcet Syndrome/complications* ; Behcet Syndrome/diagnostic imaging* ; Bone and Bones/diagnostic imaging* ; Cartilage, Articular/diagnostic imaging ; Cartilage, Articular/physiopathology ; Cohort Studies ; Databases, Factual ; Dermatology/methods ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Predictive Value of Tests ; Radionuclide Imaging ; Republic of Korea ; Retrospective Studies ; Severity of Illness Index ; Sex Factors ; Technetium Tc 99m Medronate ; Whole Body Imaging/methods ; Young Adult
Keywords
Arthritis ; Behçet's disease ; Bone scintigraphy ; Dermatologists
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Behçet's disease (BD) is a multisystemic inflammatory disease with articular involvement. Non-specific arthralgia without objective signs of arthritis, such as swelling or effusion, is common in such patients. Thus, an accurate diagnosis of joint involvement may be challenging for dermatologists.
OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the validity of (99m)Tc-methylene diphosphonate (Tc-99m-MDP) bone scintigraphy for joint involvement assessment in patients with BD.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: In 211 patients with BD who had scintigraphic evaluations due to joint symptoms, agreement between bone scintigraphy findings and clinically evaluated joint complaints was retrospectively assessed using Cohen's kappa (κ) statistic. A patient subset (n = 104) showing agreement between joint complaints and scintigraphy results was re-evaluated by a rheumatologist to determine the level of diagnostic specificity attained by combining bone scintigraphy with clinical examinations of dermatologists.
RESULTS: The total kappa value (211 patients) was 0.604, indicating fair agreement between joint complaints and scintigraphy results. Individual analysis of eleven joint categories revealed statistically significant correlations for wrist (κ = 0.677), shoulder (κ = 0.661), and foot joints (κ = 0.618). Of the 104 referrals to a rheumatologist, 95 (91.34%) were confirmed as having BD-associated articular involvement. Joint acral areas (e.g., foot, hand, wrist and shoulder) that had the highest kappa value correlations also ranked highest in diagnostic specificity.
CONCLUSION: Bone scintigraphy presents a simple and useful option for dermatologists to assess joint involvement in BD patients, especially for specific anatomic sites.