skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Three-phase bone studies in hemiplegia with reflex sympathetic dystrophy and the effect of disuse

Journal Article · · J. Nucl. Med.; (United States)
OSTI ID:6783627

Eighty-five patients with cerebral vascular accidents were assessed with three-phase bone scintigraphy of the hands and with whole-body delayed bone imaging. Nine patients (10%) had normal three-phase bone images. Fifty-five patients (65%) showed decreased blood flow and blood-pool images of the hands and wrists with normal delayed bone scintigrams, indicating the effect of paralysis or disuse. Twenty-one patients (25%) had diffuse increased uptake with periarticular accentuation, felt to be bone-scintigraphic evidence of reflex sympathetic dystrophy of the hands and wrists; in two patients this occurred before its clinical appearance. Thriteen of the 21 reflex sympathetic dystrophy syndromes (RDS)-involved limbs (62%) had increased blood flow, whereas 8 (38%) had decreased flow. Gross limb blood flow appears to be related to the degree of muscle activity, but flow may be altered by the presence of sympathetic changes. A possible dissociation between whole-limb flow and bone blood flow in paralyzed limbs involved with RDS is discussed.

Research Organization:
St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, Ontario
OSTI ID:
6783627
Journal Information:
J. Nucl. Med.; (United States), Vol. 25:4
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English