Nursing Coursework About Osteomyelitis in Nuclear Medicine and in CT (Coursework Sample)

Osteomyelitis: Nuclear Medicine Studies and CT
Student’s Name:
Institutional Affiliation
Date
Osteomyelitis: Nuclear Medicine Studies and CT
According to Lee, Sadigh, Mankad, Kapse, & Rajeswaran (2016), “osteomyelitis is inflammation of the bone marrow secondary to infection, which can progress to osteonecrosis, bone destruction, and septic arthritis.” Osteomyelitis is described as an inflammation of bone almost often because of a typical bacterial infection. Additionally, other non-pyogenic causes of osteomyelitis are skeletal syphilis, tuberculous osteomyelitis, and fungal osteomyelitis. This condition does not discriminate by gender and can occur at any age. However, for individuals who have no specific risk factors, osteomyelitis is predominantly common among those aged 2-12 years. Additionally, this condition is more common among males and the ratio of male to female is 3:1.
Diagnosis report shows that osteomyelitis is more common in the lower limb, then vertebrae, radial styloid, and least common around the sacroiliac joint. Additionally, the osteomyelitis location within the human bone varies significantly with age because of the changing blood supply. Thus, neonates experience this condition around the metaphysis and/or epiphysis regions, children around the metaphysic region, and regions of subchondral and epiphyses for the adults. All in all, this condition can be diagnosed using nuclear medicine study and CT scan. Thus, this paper will discuss how CT and nuclear medicine diagnose osteomyelitis.
Nuclear medicine specialty involves giving the patient a radioactive medication in small amounts, known as a radiopharmaceutical. The radiopharmaceutical is a radioactive material that is administered internally, through inhalation, injection, or swallowing (Cain, 2017). On the other hand, CT Scanning or Computed Tomography is an advanced technology system which is used to study the inner functioning of the body. CT helps the physician "see" the inner parts of the body (anatomy). While nuclear medicine is used to visualize organs or tissues, it can also be used for whole-body visualization just like the CT scanning if an agent that targets specific cellular functions or receptors is used. Some of the examples of the techniques that include whole-body visualizing are PET/CT scan, octreotide scans, MIBG scan, gallium scan, as well as indium white blood cell (WBC) scan.
First, in the diagnosis and treatment of osteomyelitis, CT scanning is superior to other techniques such as plain film and MRI because it depicts the bony margins and identifies an involucrum or sequestrum. CT scans show the detailed images of body parts such as organs, bones, fat as well as muscles. These scans provide greater details and clarity of “inner” organs, bone, soft tissue as well as blood vessels which cannot be achieved using a regular X-ray (Osteomyelitis, 2015). However, features of a CT scan are similar to those from plain films. Nonetheless, CT minimizes the exposure to radiation.
With computed tomography, a dye is swallowed or injected into a patient’s vein to ensure the organs or tissues are more clearly. In CT, a large donut-like X-ray machine known as a CT scanner is used takes X-ray pictures from various angles of the human body. This scanner produces an extremely narrow “pencil” X-ray beam which is moved in a circle to allow the doctor or physician to obtain many different views and pictures of the same structure or organ (Jeffcoate, 2017). It is typically a different X-ray study as it coalesces several X-ray pictures with the help of a computer to produce cross-sectional views of body structures and internal organs, and if need be, three-dimensional images.
The pictures are processed to give cross-sectional images of the patient’s body. From all the images, the body appears as the body’s X-ray "slice" record on a video. The image produced is known as a tomogram while the axial tomography is the "section" of the tomogram recorded from different body levels (Jeffcoate, 2017). Just like bread with slices, the body is viewed as slices of a CT scan from the skin through the central body part that is being examined. Thus when the levels are “combined” together, a body structure is obtained in a three-dimensional picture.
Radiologists use specialized expertise and equipment to produce and interpret them to enable the body scans to help them diagnose conditions like cardiovascular diseases, cancers, infectious diseases, musculoskeletal disorders as well as trauma. For instance, chest CT scans can present much detailed information concerning the structures and organs within the chest than which can help explain injuries and chest/thoracic organs diseases. These cans can also be applied in visualizing needles placement during biopsies of chest organs or tumors. They can also be used during aspiration of chest fluid and in both cases; they help to monitor tumors among other chest conditions before and after treatment is done.
On the other hand, nuclear medicine can also be used to diagnose osteomyelitis. With this method, several techniques can be used to identify foci of osteomyelitis. They include bone scintigraphy (Tc99m), in111 labeled WBC as well as gallium67 scintigraphy. Three-phase Tc-99m methylenediphosphonate (MDP) bone scintigraphy is regarded as the most sensitive technique that can be used to detect skeletal metastases. This method has been successfully and routinely used to in higher-risk breast, lung, and prostate cancer patients. The reason these conditions have a high bone metastasis incidence rate.
In skeletal system pathology diagnosis, the patient gets an injection of radiopharmaceuticals made up of Technetium-99m as well as a bone-seeking substance like analogs of phosphates, calcium, or hydroxyl groups (Mukherjee et al., 2014). The most common substance is an organic diphosphonate which is bound to the Tc-99m. 2-4 hours after the injection, the patient is scanned by the gamma camera, acquiring anterior scans and posterior scans as well (Peepre, 2014). The mechanism used here stets that increased osteoblastic (growth and...