by
Lauren Dubinsky, Senior Reporter | June 10, 2014
Low back pain can be debilitating and not every patient responds to treatment, but a study presented at this year's Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging meeting found that a molecular imaging scan together with a traditional bone scan can provide the information needed to choose the right pain-killing treatment.
"Low back pain is an extremely common problem that affects most people at some point in their life," Suruchi Jain, co-author of the study, said in a statement.
X-ray, CT and MR are used to show the structure of the bone, but the cause of the pain is not always directly associated with structural changes. However, the hybrid molecular imaging technique, SPECT/CT, does have the capability to identify the physiological processes that cause the pain-inflammation or infection.
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The study was randomized and double-blinded, and involved 80 adults ranging from 20 to 80 years old. The goal of the study was to compare the difference in pain relief after clinical pain management between two groups of patients.
One of the groups received bone scans as well as SPECT/CT while the other group didn't receive any imaging. The patients were then assessed on a scale based on the percentage of pain relief compared to their baseline level before treatment.
The researchers found that patients who had 50 percent or more pain relief were much more likely to be in the bone scan group. There were 28 patients in the bone scan group that experienced between 70 and 100 percent pain relief, but only 10 patients in the control group were in that range.
Overall, the clinical diagnosis was modified for 23 out of the 40 patients in the bone scan group and three new conditions were revealed. The results of the study could lead to an improvement in access to SPECT/CT for the patients.
"The findings of this study suggest that incorporation of a bone scan with SPECT/CT in work-ups of low backache patients could lead to more widespread use of this nuclear medicine procedure in the future by increasing the confidence level of pain-treating physicians prior to interventions, thus improving their outcome," Jain said in a statement.
