Role of Fluorodeoxyglucose - Positron Emission Tomography Scan in Detection of Residual Pus Pocket Post-Operatively in Tuberculosis of Spine and Juxta Articular Tuberculosis

The aim of this article is to review the main applications and advantages of Fluorodeoxyglucose PET in imaging of tuberculosis (TB) of spine post-operatively. In TB, granulomas typically demonstrate increased Fluorodeoxyglucose uptake, and areas of active TB can be differentiated from old or inactive disease by dual time point imaging. However, standardized uptake value measurements are high in both TB and malignant lesions, with significant overlap that limits their usefulness. In spinal TB, Fluorodeoxyglucose PET detects more tuberculous lesions than CT, is of value in assessing response to tuberculostatic treatment. Fluorodeoxyglucose PET can also be considered a marker of disease status in patients with HIV and TB co-infection. Overall, evaluation of treatment response is potentially the most important clinical application of Fluorodeoxyglucose PET in TB, owing to its ability to distinguish active from inactive disease. Fluorodeoxyglucose PET and PET/CT may assist early diagnosis and facilitate differentiation between malignancies and TB, identification of extra pulmonary TB, staging of TB, and assessment of treatment response. The diagnosis and prognosis of residual disease is a bit of problem in spinal TB owing to artifacts produced by implants. PET scan proves to be important in this scenario. It also helps in measuring the effectiveness of treatment. It also recognizes the new lesions that may arise because of resistance to anti-tubercular drugs. *Corresponding author: Khandelwal RCS, Department of Orthopaedics, King Edward Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, India, Tel: +9892499162; E-mail: dhakejagdish9@gmail.com Received October 24, 2018; Accepted November 16, 2018; Published November 21, 2018 Citation: Khandelwal RCS, Nathan S, Deo T, Dhake JM, Shetty NS (2018) Role of Fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography Scan in Detection of Residual Pus Pocket Post-Operatively in Tuberculosis of Spine and Juxta Articular Tuberculosis. J Spine 7: 424. doi: 10.4172/2165-7939.1000424 Copyright: © 2018 Khandelwal RCS, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.