Animal and animal produce inspired signs may sound a little silly, but the radiology literature is replete with such signs, some more fanciful than others.
On this page:
Fish and marine life
- cluster of black pearls sign
- endosteal scalloping: medullary cavity masses, e.g. multiple myeloma
- fish vertebra (also known as codfish vertebra): biconcave vertebrae as seen in osteoporosis
- fishtail deformity of the elbow: due to abnormal trochlear ossification following a distal humeral fracture in childhood
- fishtail pancreas: rare anatomic variant of the pancreas
- lobster claw sign of papillary necrosis
- manta ray sign of bladder exstrophy
- scallop sign of rheumatoid arthritis
- shrimp sign of cerebellar progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy
- vertebral scalloping: may be anterior or posterior border
Birds
- bird beak sign of achalasia (also known as rat tail sign)
- beak sign of arterial dissection or of sigmoid volvulus
- eggshell calcification of silicosis and occasionally sarcoidosis
- gull wing appearance of erosive osteoarthritis
- hummingbird sign or penguin sign
- owl-eyes sign of anterior spinal cord infarction etc.
- pooping duck sign of triquetral fracture
- swan neck deformity of rheumatoid arthritis
- winking owl sign
Mammals
- anteater nose sign of calcaneonavicular coalition
- bat's wing
- pulmonary opacities, e.g. in alveolar edema
- 4th ventricle (Joubert anomaly and related syndromes)
- bear's paw sign: xanthogranulomatous pyelonephritis
- beaver tail liver
- Brahma bull sign: femoral neck osteochondroma
- buffalo chest: bilateral pneumothoraces due to abnormal communication between the pleural spaces
- bull's eye: evoked in the mind's eye by many a pathology
- bunny waveform sign: Doppler waveform in subclavian steal syndrome
- dog ear sign: fluid/blood in pelvic peritoneal recess
- dromedary hump: anatomic variant of the renal outline
- dural tail: of meningioma and several other dural-based lesions
- ears of the lynx sign: hereditary spastic paraplegia
- elephant-on-a-flagpole sign: enlarged renal pelvis
- eye of tiger sign: classical of Hallervorden-Spatz syndrome
- feline esophagus: horizontal striations seen on barium swallows as a variant of normal
- giraffe sign
- hidebound sign of gastrointestinal scleroderma
- human
- ivory phalanx sign of psoriatic arthritis
- ivory vertebra sign
- joint mouse: intra-articular loose body resulting from osteochondritis dissecans
- leather bottle stomach: of linitis plastica
- leopard skin sign or tigroid pattern
- moose head appearance of corpus callosal dysgenesis
-
panda sign
- of the midbrain in Wilson disease
- of sarcoidosis
- piglet sign of osmotic demyelination
- pleural mouse
- raccoon eyes sign
- rat bite erosions of gout
- rat tail sign of arterial dissection or achalasia (also known as bird-beak sign)
- Scottie dog sign
- Snoopy sign
- staghorn calculus: struvite renal calculi
- tigroid pattern or leopard skin sign
- zebra sign: remote cerebellar hemorrhage
- zebra stripe sign: osteogenesis imperfecta
Arthropods
- abdominal cocoon: encapsulating peritoneal sclerosis
- butterfly fracture
- butterfly glioma: glioma crossing midline to the contralateral hemisphere
- butterfly shape of the grey matter of the spinal cord
- butterfly vertebra
- caterpillar sign: of pyloric stenosis
- spider web: intrahepatic veins in hepatic venous outflow obstruction
Reptiles
- cobra head sign of ureterocele
- snake-eye appearance: pathology of anterior horns of cervical grey matter
-
snake eyes
- appearance of the facial canal in the petrous temporal bone
- alternative name for owl-eyes sign of spinal cord infarction
- snake sign (or serpent sign)
- turtleback sign (schistosomiasis)
Micro-organisms
- plankton sign: diagnostic on ultrasound of an exudative pleural effusion
Fictional creatures
- cyclops lesion: usually post-ACL repair
-
medusa head
- of a developmental venous anomaly (DVA)
- also a sign of severe portal hypertension (i.e. caput medusae)
- Shmoo sign: left ventricular enlargement
Animal product foods
- cervical hamburger sign: normal cervical facet joints on axial CT
- head cheese sign of hypersensitivity pneumonitis
- honeycomb lung of UIP/pulmonary fibrosis
- ice cream cone sign of the middle ear ossicles
- ice cream cone sign of vestibular schwannoma
- mesenteric hamburger sign (also called sandwich sign): mesenteric nodal mass
- omental cake: metastases to omentum
- sausage digit: underlying inflammatory arthritis or dactylitis
- water bottle sign: massive pericardial effusion
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