Radiology Cases Osteolytic metastases in the spine LSBU

Description: This document serves to list those cases of purely osteolytic (destructive) metastasis in the spine. Detection, as elsewhere, involves a knowledge of normal structures of bone density and a systematic scheme to ensure detection of their absence from the image. In the spine, the pedicles are potentially, the most vascular part of the vertebra and a more common site of metastatic involvement. Radiologists look for pedicles; their disappearance will suggest metastasis, but will not exclude other blood-borne destructive processes.