Is FDG-PET A Better Imaging Option For Diabetic Osteomyelitis?
Making an accurate diagnosis of osteomyelitis in a patient with diabetes is essential in order to minimize complications. Nearly 33 percent of diabetic foot infections develop osteomyelitis. Most of these infections are a result of direct contiguous spread from soft tissue lesions.1 Early diagnosis and antibiotic therapy are important in order to prevent amputation. In healthy patients, acute osteomyelitis does not usually present a diagnostic challenge. This is due to the obvious systemic signs and symptoms such as fever, malaise, pain, tenderness and decreased motion of affected bone.2 However, in diabetic patients with acute osteomyelitis, the common signs and symptoms of infection are often absent.3 In distinguishing chronic osteomyelitis from acute osteomyelitis, Schauwecker noted that chronic osteomyelitis involves greater than one episode of treatment and/or a persistent infection lasting more than six weeks.4 The diagnosis of chronic osteomyelitis is often difficult to make uti
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