Nuclear medicine and the failed joint replacement: Past, present, and future

Figure 2 Infected right hip arthroplasty. A: On the ^99mTc-methylene diphosphonate bone scan, there is irregularly increased radiopharmaceutical accumulation around the entire femoral component of the 2 years old cementless (revision) prosthesis, a pattern which some investigators have reported as specific for infection; B-D: On the ^99mTc-MDP bone scan, there is diffuse hyperperfusion, and hyperemia around the prosthesis on the flow and blood pool images, and diffusely increased periprosthetic radiopharmaceutical on the delayed, bone image (same patient illustrated in Figure 2A); B: Flow; C: Blood pool; D: Bone.