The Role of Bone Scintigraphy on Torture Diagnosis [2016]

From 1991 to 2012, among of 13477 applicants of to HRFT’s Treatment and Rehabilitation Centers, totally 415 patients’ files that included bone scintigraphy scans were enclosed in this study. The patients files were evaluated retrospectively; and sex, age, socioeconomically status, torture methods, time since torture, duration of exposure to torture, physical and scintigraphy findings were documented. Results: All of the patients reported repetitive and severe beatings and various forms of torture methods. 65 were female (15.7%), 350 were male (84.3%), mean age was 30.98 ±9.67 (range 11-72 year). 232 cases (56% of 415 cases) were scintigraphy positive and these results were consisted with the literature, and the detectable bone lesion on scintigraphy increased significantly with the duration of exposure to torture (7 days and more). Conclusions: Bone scintigraphy should be considered as a valuable non- invasive diagnostic method to evaluate and document traumatized patients with no detectable marks upon physical examination.

This study was presented at IRCT’s global scientific symposium on 5-9 December 2016.

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