Presentation
40 day old ex full-term infant presented to the ED for evaluation of 5 days of cough.
Patient Data
Incidental Finding: Bone within bone appearance of multiple thoracic and lumbar vertebral bodies.
Case Discussion
Patient was admitted to the hospital and was ultimately found to be RSV and Flu-positive. Bone in bone appearance on chest radiograph was an incidental finding on evaluation of lung fields for possible underlying etiology of cough.
This finding is nonspecific and can be a normal variant or a pathologic sign of osteopenia/osteoporosis of various etiologies. The ex-full term infant above was otherwise a healthy infant aside from acute viral illness and the differential included normal variant vs osteopenia.
Soni C. Chawla, M.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Radiological Sciences
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Olive View - UCLA Medical Center