Improved early diagnosis of acute inflammatory skeletal-articular diseases in children: a two-radiopharmaceutical approach.

The febrile child with a painful bone or joint still presents a difficult pediatric diagnostic problem. Acute hematogenous osteomyelitis, septic arthritis, and cellulitis are the most common causes of this symptom. Thirty-seven patients with these disorders were studied. Because findings from technetium-99m phosphate bone scans and roentgenograms are often normal in patients in the early stages of acute hematogenous osteomyelitis, children suspected of having this disorder were tested using gallium-67 citrate scans in addition to the other diagnostic procedures. The increased diagnostic accuracy of this approach over that of bone scan and roentgenogram studies alone was observed in the children with fever and bone or joint pain.