99mTc-HMPAO-Labelled Leukocyte Scan and CT in the Diagnosis of Vascular Graft Infection

Abstract

Prosthetic vascular graft infections (VGI) are unknown but devastating complications in reconstructive vascular surgery (Seeger 2000). Diagnosis of VGI can be difficult given that the symptoms are often non-specific, and their detection by conventional radiographic methods could be difficult, although computed tomography (CT) and labelled leukocyte scintigraphy, using either 99mTc or 111In, have been shown to be useful tools in the diagnosis of VGI (Modrall et al. 1999). However, there are very few comparative studies on the clinical usefulness of the CT and leukocyte scan in the diagnosis of VGI (Mark et al. 1985; Cerqueira 1992; Ramo et al. 1993; Delgado et al. 1999).