Increased Tc-99m MDP in multiple lumbar intervertebral disk spaces in Scheuermann disease without concomitant radiographic calcification or diskitis.

A radionuclide bone scan serendipitously revealed deposition of Tc-99m MDP in multiple lumbar intervertebral disk spaces in a 29-year-old man with extensive trauma to the left femur as a result of a motor vehicle accident. In the authors' experience, alcoholic liver disease or altered weight bearing secondary to prior trauma are not associated with intervertebral radiotracer uptake. Although it is possible that radiographically undetectable microcalcifications in the intervertebral disk spaces associated with degenerative changes, common in Scheuermann disease, account for this unusual finding, a literature search found that increased disk uptake had been reported only in two patients with Scheuermann disease who had concomitant active or healing diskitis. No other causes of increased disk uptake of Tc-99m MDP were found.