Gallium scintigraphy in the evaluation of disk-space infections: concise communication.

Disk-space infections may present a difficult diagnostic problem. To evaluate the usefulness and accuracy of gallium-67 scanning for disk-space infections, a retrospective review was made of the records of 100 consecutive patients in whom gallium scans were obtained and disk-space infection suspected. Of the 100 patients, 19 had disk-space infections, with positive gallium scans in 17. In three of these, the gallium scan was positive, whereas the results on the radiographs and other tests were normal. In this study, gallium scanning was a useful adjunct in the evaluation of patients with suspected disk-space infections; the sensitivity was 89%, specificity 85%, and accuracy 86%.