Causes of Avascular Necrosis (AVN) Mnemonic
There are numerous causes of avascular necrosis (AVN), which is at its most basic definition when blood flow to a bone is interrupted or reduced. Numerous mnemonics have been proposed to remember the many causes of AVN. My favorite is probably GIVE INFARCTS: GIVE INFARCTS · G- Gaucher disease · I- Idiopathic- Legg-Calve Perthes · […]
Thoracic Spine Burst Fracture
History: hit by car while riding bike A burst fracture is a type of traumatic spinal injury in which a vertebra breaks from a high-energy axial load (e.g., car accidents or falls from a great height or high speed, and some kinds of seizures), with shards of vertebra penetrating surrounding tissues and sometimes the spinal […]
Bone Infarcts
History: 55 year old male with knee pain. This is a classic example of bone infarcts, here called osteonecrosis of the knee, which on radiographs is represented as a well defined sclerotic lesion with serpentine margins. In our example, the articular surfaces are mildly distorted, more so on the tibial plateau, causing collapse. On MRI, […]
Bone Metastases – Lytic versus Blastic
History: 60 year old male with lung cancer. This patient had metastatic lung cancer to the bones. Bone metastases are classified as either blastic or lytic: Lytic bone metastases occur in the following cancers: renal, lung, breast, thyroid, melanoma, chordoma, paraganglioma, GI tract, urothelial, ovarian, melanoma, chordoma, and paraganglioma. Blastic bone metastases occur in the following cancers: […]
Paget’s Disease
History: 60 year old male with hip pain. The differential diagnosis for this appearance on a Tc-99m MDP bone scan includes fibrous dysplasia, Paget’s disease, bone metastases, and primary bone tumor. This is a case of Paget’s disease. Paget’s disease is a disorder of abnormal and excessive bone remodeling, which results in deformed and weakened […]
Sinonasal Osteoma
History: 40 year old male with incidental finding on head CT done for minor head trauma. This is the typical appearance for a Sinonasal Osteoma. Classically they are asymptomatic, and thus are incidental findings on imaging studies done for other reasons. Sinonasal osteomas are the most common benign tumor of the sinuses. They can be […]