The role of conventional radiography and radionuclide imaging in the diagnosis of sports bone injuries of the lower limbs.

Abstract

The primary investigation of sports bone injuries involves a clinical evaluation of the patient, along with conventional radiography. Since the percentage of early detection of a sports injury on plain film radiography is low, in most cases it is followed by a bone scan, except in obvious trauma when a clearly visible fracture is present. Due to the ability of three-phase bone scintigraphy to visualize a range of injuries it is clinically considered a valuable tool. This research study was designed to evaluate the use of conventional radiography and bone scintigraphy in the diagnosis of sports bone injuries of the lower limbs. The study involved patients that attended the Radiology department of St. Luke's Hospital having bone injuries of the lower limbs. A modified format of the research instrument used by Grima ( 1997) in her research was utilized in this study. The results indicated that conventional radiography and nuclear medicine have a lack of sensitivity towards the detection of bone sports injuries. However, this is most likely due to the small sample size used within this study and if it were performed on a much larger scale, the results might have supported the literature found. Thus the researcher recommended that the study should be done with a larger patient sample.