BONE-SCINTIGRAPHY IN THE ASSESSMENT OF THE HALLUCAL SESAMOIDS

Bone scintigraphy is frequently used to evaluate suspected hallucal se samoid pathology. Increased scintigraphic activity of the hallucal ses amoid is assumed to corroborate clinical suspicion of pathology, but t he incidence of such increased uptake has not been studied in an asymp tomatic population. Using a 0 to 2 bone scintigraphic rating system, 2 5 of 86 (29%) asymptomatic infantry recruits and 7 of 27 (26%) asympto matic sedentary adults were found to have grade 1 or grade 2 activity. When using scintigraphy to evaluate hallucal sesamoid pathology, caut ion should be used in interpreting the meaning of increased scintigrap hic activity.