Young athletes with low back pain: Skeletal scintigraphy of conditions other than pars interarticularis stress

Purpose: Skeletal scintigraphy is an important method for showing evidence of stress injuries affecting the partes interarticulares of young athletes with low back pain. Other etiologies of low back pain may also cause uptake abnormalities in these patients. How often do the results of skeletal scintigraphy support diagnoses other than stress injuries to the partes interarticulares and what are these diagnoses? Materials and Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the records of 209 young patients (149 females, 60 males; age range: 8-21 years, mean: 15.7 years) with low back pain and no previously treated vertebral condition who were consecutively referred from a sports medicine clinic to skeletal scintigraphy. Results: Sites of high uptake supportive of diagnoses other than pars interarticularis stress were shown in 36 (17%) of the 209 patients. Other diagnoses supported by skeletal scintigraphy included stress at the articulation between a transitional vertebra and the sacrum, injuries to the vertebral body ring apophysis, sacral fracture, spinous process injury, and sacroiliac joint stress. Conclusion: Skeletal scintigraphy shows uptake abnormalities supportive of diagnoses other than pars interarticularis stress in a significant number of young patients with low back pain. The uptake abnormalities shown are usually stress-related in this select population.