Role of gallium 67 in inflammatory disease.

Gallium 67 has been found to be extremely useful for detection of inflammatory disease. In the skeletal system it complements the 99m Tc-phosphate compounds in differentiating periatricular osteomyelitis, septic arthritis, and cellulitis. Gallium is particularly useful in documenting successful treatment of bone infection because the phosphate scan remains positive for much longer periods of time. In a variety of chest disorders gallium uptake has been found to correlate well with the active inflammatory state. One of the most frequent uses of gallium imaging has been for localization of inflammatory foci in postoperative patients as well as in patients who present with fever of undetermined origin. Neutrophilic labeling followed by migration to the inflammatory area appears to be the major mechanism of localization of radiogallium. For this reason leukopenic patients constitute a group in which false negative results may be encountered.