Non-specific

Last revised by Rohit Sharma on 3 Apr 2024

Citation, DOI, disclosures and article data

Citation:

Bell D, Sharma R, Non-specific. Reference article, Radiopaedia.org (Accessed on 19 Apr 2024) https://doi.org/10.53347/rID-63341

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.53347/rID-63341

Permalink:

https://radiopaedia.org/articles/63341

rID:

63341

Article created:

27 Sep 2018, Daniel J Bell ◉

Disclosures:

At the time the article was created Daniel J Bell had no recorded disclosures.

View Daniel J Bell's current disclosures

Last revised:

3 Apr 2024, Rohit Sharma ◉

Disclosures:

At the time the article was last revised Rohit Sharma had no financial relationships to ineligible companies to disclose.

View Rohit Sharma's current disclosures

Revisions:

2 times, by 2 contributors - see full revision history and disclosures

Synonyms:

Nonspecific

Non-specific is a widely-used term in radiology, and clinical medicine in general.

Non-specific is used for a symptom, sign, test result, radiological finding, etc., that does not point towards a specific diagnosis or etiology. For example, a high T2 signal lesion of the white matter on an MRI brain is a non-specific finding as the number of possible causes is broad.

Nevertheless, it has been suggested that stating that a radiological finding is non-specific does not remove the responsibility of the reporting radiologist to suggest differential diagnoses, or further appropriate management ¹.