Scintigraphic abnormalities of tibialis posterior tendonitis and their importance

Tibialis Posterior Tendonitis in a common disorder that affect patients in the 5th and 6th decades of life. It has the potential to become a major health issue if the tendonitis progresses to dysfunction. Early diagnosis and treatment have the potential to prevent this progression. The diagnosis can be made with the use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and this is often the first choice modality. In this paper we discuss six cases of degenerative tendonitis in otherwise normal patients who were diagnosed with by review of bone scans that had been performed, and we describe the bone scan findings that can lead to the diagnosis. This is the first paper we are aware of where these findings are described in otherwise normal patients, and whilst not advocating bone scan as the first line of imaging for this problem, if the study has been done, then highly useful information can be obtained from the images.