Diseases of Joints and Soft-Tissue Infections

The joints are the sites of a great variety of diseases of known and unknown etiology (Table 8.1). The joint diseases of 99mTc-MDP bone scintigraphic interest, pinhole scintigraphy in particular, include synovitis, infective arthritis, degenerative arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, seronegative spondyloarthropathies, and metabolic articular disorders. Based on the histological characteristics, joints are divided into the fibrous, cartilaginous, and synovial types (Williams and Warwick 1989). In the respective joints, apposed bone surfaces are fastened by the connective and cartilaginous tissue and separated by the synovial lining and cavity. Table 8.2 shows typical joints that belong to each of these categories.