Radiology - Signs (Subscribe)  

ACR-code 321-91 Clinical presentation: Radiograph of thoracic spine for back pain in an elderly man
There is loss of definition of the anterior margins of the lower thoracic vertebrae. Bone absorption is greater away from the less plastic intervertebral disc. The constant pulsation of the expanding aneurysm of the descending aorta has...

lucent band of decreased cortical density
* perpendicular to bone surface
* often multiple, +/- symmetrical
* +/- callus formation
* "pathognomonic" of osteomalacia
o seen on compressive (concave) side (eg, prox femur)
* also seen in Paget dz on tensile (convex) side

There are two main reasons that bones receive radiotherapy: 1) an intentional delivery to bones to treat painful metastatic bone lesions or 2) their unavoidable inclusion into a radiation field which intends to treat an adjacent soft tissue neoplasm. In either case, the effects on the bone are varied and...

Lipohaemarthrosis.
Active bone marrow in the mature skeleton is predomiantly localized to axial skeleton, including pelvis. The medulla limb bones contain mostly fat. This fat is liquid at body temperature and may be liberated from the bone by trauma. Where there is blood and/or joint-effusion and free-fat, the particular bounded tissue...

Simply bone destruction and replacement by tumour mass. Most gamuts indicate lytic metastasis and myeloma together near the top of the list in a mature patient. Radiographic detection involves the frequently difficult observation of the absence of a normal structure. The lesions are made more difficult to detect by the...

* immobilization atrophy
* Sudeck's atrophy (reflex sympathetic dystrophy)
* rheumatoid or psoriatic (rarely in inflammatory states)

Radiology case 438-6132 68 year old female with ischaemia and ulcers of her fingers.
There is amorphous calcification in the soft tissue over the fingers and thumb. In the index and middle finger, the clumped calcification is near the skin suface. The soft-tissue thickening over the fingers is featureless with none...

"anthropologic" baseline
* from infraorbital point (inferiormost pt of bony orbit)
* to superior border of external auditory meatus
Note: "axial" CTs use "supraorbital-meatal" line (about 25 degrees to Reid's)

* early signs:
* fusiform periarticular soft tissue swelling (result of effusion)
* regional osteoporosis (disuse and local hyperemia)
* widened joint space
* marginal + central bone erosion (base of 4th proximal phalanx most common)
* change in ulnar styloid and distal radioulnar joint
* atlantoaxial dislocation
* giant synovial cysts
* late signs:
* flexion/extension...

marked periostosis of tibia
* seen in congenital syphilis

* bilateral & symmetrical
o ankylosing spondylitis
o Reiter syndrome
o enteropathic
* bilateral & assymetrical
...

premature closure of sagittal suture
* aka: dolichocephaly
* "long skull"
* most common type of craniosynostosis (55%)

sclerotic bone metastases. Notes, links and Images
* prostate
* bladder
* rectum
* breast (occ.)
* bronchus
* carcinoid tumors
* Hodgkin disease
* stomach

What does it mean that a lesion is sclerotic? Well, generally, it means that it is due to a fairly slow-growing process. Bone reacts to its environment in two ways -- either by removing some of itself or by creating more of itself. If the disorder it is reacting to...

Radiology case 448-3321 Clinical presentation: 8 year old girl with a cerebellar tumour.
There are multiple foci of increased bone density in the bones of pelvis and proximal right femur. In the metapohysis of the right femur, there is a double outline to the cortex over dense medullary bone. Further down the...