Prospective study of sequential technetium-99m phosphate and gallium imaging in painful hip prostheses (comparison of diagnostic modalities)

Twenty-two painful hip prostheses were studied prospectively with plain radiography, aspiration and arthrography, Tc-99m phosphate bone imaging, and gallium imaging to evaluate loosening, infection, or both and to compare the accuracy of these modalities. Fifteen prostheses were revised yielding 14 loose femoral and eight loose acetabular components. Five proved to have infected prostheses. Arthrograms, plain radiographs, and bone scans are highly sensitive in detecting loosening of the femoral component. This study confirmed a previous retrospective study in demonstrating that accuracy of diagnosis of an abnormal acetabular component using all four modalities is less than that for the femoral component. In infected prostheses, phosphate bone imaging showed high sensitivity of a pattern that accurately diagnosed all the infected cases, whereas gallium imaging missed one case.