Abstract
Early diagnosis of an infected vascular prosthesis, a potentially life-threatening disease, is a precondition of adequate treatment. The most frequently used diagnostic imaging method is computer tomography.
Non-acute infections caused by low grade agents may pose a challenge with ambiguous CT-images and other ancillary imaging methods are used for these cases, each offering different levels of diagnostic sensitivity. These methods come from the fields of radiology (magnetic resonance imaging - MRI) and nuclear medicine studies using labelled leukocytes (In-111 or Tc-99m-HMPAO), Tc-99m labelled antigranulocyte antibodies, Ga-67-citrate or labelled antibiotics (Tc-99m-ciprofloxacin) or avidin in combination with In-111-biotin.
Positron emission tomography (PET) or hybrid PET/CT using F-18-FDG are becoming increasingly popular. The authors of this review article point out the diagnostic potential of the different methods and current trends, including the possibilities of microbiological demonstration of the agent, as well as their potential position in the diagnostic algorithm.