HALF PRICE OFFER ENDS TODAY! New Elbow X-ray Interpretation Course by Andrew Murphy REGISTER NOW

Articles

Articles are a collaborative effort to provide a single canonical page on all topics relevant to the practice of radiology. As such, articles are written and edited by countless contributing members over a period of time. A global group of dedicated editors oversee accuracy, consulting with expert advisers, and constantly reviewing additions.

Create new article

Filtered (1)Done (clear)

+Systems

×Article Sections

+Sort By

ADVERTISEMENT: Supporters see fewer/no ads

782 results found

Unilateral testicular lesions

The differential diagnosis for unilateral testicular lesions is wide-ranging. Neoplastic Common seminoma (40-50% of testicular malignancies) non-seminomatous germ cell tumors: testicular teratoma testicular epidermoid (teratoma with ectodermal elements only) testicular choriocarcinoma t...

Upper gastrointestinal bleeding (differential)

An upper gastrointestinal bleed usually refers to bleeding proximal to the ligament of Treitz. Pathology Causes peptic ulcer gastritis esophagitis duodenitis Mallory-Weiss tear varices tumor vascular abnormality vascular ectasia angiodysplasia Dieulafoy lesion vascular malformation...

Upper lobe bronchiectasis

Distribution of bronchiectasis can help in narrowing the differential diagnosis. Upper lobe bronchiectasis is typically seen in: cystic fibrosis tuberculosis Rarely it may be seen with non-tuberculous mycobacterial infection (e.g. MAC infection 2). Traction bronchiectasis in the upper lobes c...

Ureteral calcification

Ureteral calcification refers to the presence of calcium concretions within the ureteral lumen or wall. Common ureteric calculi Uncommon neoplastic 3 transitional cell carcinoma hemangioma papilloma infections tuberculosis 1 schistosomiasis of the urinary tract iatrogenic radiation u...

Urinary bladder diverticula (causes)

There are numerous causes of urinary bladder diverticula: Primary (congenital or idiopathic) Hutch diverticulum (in paraureteral region) Secondary bladder outlet obstruction bladder neck stenosis neurogenic bladder posterior urethral valve prostatic enlargement (hypertrophy; carcinoma) ...

Urinary bladder diverticulum

A urinary bladder diverticulum (plural: diverticula) is an outpouching from the bladder wall, whereby mucosa herniates through the bladder wall. It may be solitary or multiple in nature and can vary considerably in size. Epidemiology There are two peaks; one at 10 years and the other at 60-70 ...

Urinary bladder wall or lumen calcification (differential)

Causes of urinary bladder wall or lumen calcification include: Common bladder calculus schistosomiasis of the urinary tract tuberculosis Uncommon neuroblastoma; pheochromocytoma radiation reaction alkaptonuria (ochronosis) amyloidosis calculus in a urachal cyst or in a bladder divertic...

Urinary diversion

Urinary diversion is created after the removal of the urinary bladder (radical cystectomy or cystoprostatectomy, usually done to treat invasive bladder cancer). There are three main varieties: neobladder formed from a segment of ileum (i.e. ileal conduit, also known as a "Bricker conduit") th...

Uterine enlargement (differential)

Uterine enlargement can occur in a number of situations from both diffuse and focal processes. These include: gestation related events normal intrauterine pregnancy molar pregnancy - gestational trophoblastic disease postpartum uterus - still larger than usual hormonal causes exogenous h...

Vacuum phenomenon

Vacuum phenomena describe aseptic gas collections (e.g. nitrogen and traces of oxygen and or carbon dioxide) within different specific tissues 1-3. Usually, they are seen within the intervertebral discs, the bones and within different joints, but can also be seen in other usually adjacent locati...

Valgus vs varus

The terms valgus and varus refer to angulation (or bowing) within the shaft of a bone or at a joint in the coronal plane. It is determined by the distal part being more medial or lateral than it should be. Whenever the distal part is more lateral, it is called valgus. Whenever the distal part i...

Valsalva maneuver

The Valsalva maneuver is the forced expiration of air against a closed airway, resulting in increased intra-abdominal, intrathoracic, and pharyngeal pressure. It can be performed against a closed glottis or by one closing the mouth and pinching the nose while forcibly exhaling. It is commonly u...

Valvular heart disease

Valvular heart diseases, or cardiac valvulopathies, describe any acquired or congenital disease affecting one or more of the four cardiac valves. This is a general index article that classifies cardiac valvulopathies depending on which valve(s) is affected 1. See individual articles for in-dept...

Vascular pedicle

Vascular pedicle is bordered on the right by venous structures (right brachiocephalic vein above and superior vena cava) and on the left by an arterial structure (the left subclavian artery origin). The azygos vein (black oval) is seen en face above the right main bronchus. The vascular pedicle...

Vascular rings and slings

Vascular rings and slings refer to the congenital vascular encirclement of the esophagus and/or trachea by anomalous/aberrant vessels. Epidemiology Vascular rings are rare, occurring in <1% of patients 1. No gender or ethnic predispositions have been identified 3. Clinical presentation Man...

Venous thromboembolism

Venous thromboembolism covers a wide spectrum of diseases. Individual conditions and complicating condition include: deep vein thrombosis (DVT) pulmonary embolism (PE) dural venous sinus thrombosis Lemierre syndrome tumor thrombus

Ventriculomegaly

Ventriculomegaly is defined as enlargement of the ventricles. Simply, there are two causes: hydrocephalus communicating non-communicating parenchymal atrophy Refer to the article on hydrocephalus vs atrophy for more details on how to differentiate both entities.

Ventriculoperitoneal shunt

Ventriculoperitoneal (VP) shunts are a device used to shunt cerebrospinal fluid in the treatment of hydrocephalus. As the name suggests, a catheter is placed with its tip in the ventricle. The external portion of the catheter is connected to a valve that regulates the flow of CSF based on a pre...

Vertebral body mass

The differential diagnosis for a vertebral body mass is broad and may range from a completely benign, sclerotic enostosis (bone island) to a malignant primary bone tumor. Classification Broadly, these lesions can be separated into: non-neoplastic lesions primary bone tumors secondary metast...

Vertebral scalloping

Vertebral scalloping is a concavity to the posterior (or less commonly anterior) aspect of the vertebral body when viewed in a lateral projection. A small amount of concavity is normal, as is concavity of the anterior vertebral body (see vertebral body squaring). Posterior scalloping Causes of...

Vertebra plana

Vertebra plana (plural: vertebrae planae), also known as the pancake or silver dollar or coin-on-edge vertebra, is the term given when a vertebral body has lost almost its entire height anteriorly and posteriorly, representing a very advanced compression fracture. Pathology It can occur in a v...

Vertical-banded gastroplasty

Vertical-banded gastroplasty (VBG) is an older, purely restrictive procedure used to treat morbid obesity. Procedure It involves creating a small gastric pouch, based on the lesser curvature of the stomach (which is thicker and less resistant to stretching than the greater curvature), by using...

Very bizarre generalized lesions of bone (differential)

Very bizarre generalized lesions of bone tend to make you exclaim "Oh my! What is going here?" Although there are numerous potential causes, in this situation it is worth thinking of a number of entities: skeletal dysplasias and metabolic diseases Paget disease fibrous dysplasia phakomatose...

Vestibular line of Lapayowker

The vestibular line of Lapayowker refers to a vertical line passing down the most lateral aspect of vestibular apparatus. The petrous part of internal carotid artery lies medial to this line but lies lateral to it in the case of an aberrant internal carotid artery which is the characteristic ang...

Viral encephalitides

Viral encephalitides are the result of brain parenchymal infection by a number of different viruses, many of which have similar presentations and imaging features. Specific diagnosis often requires PCR. For viral infection of the meninges, please refer to the general article on viral meningiti...

Visceral artery aneurysm

Visceral artery aneurysms are abnormal focal dilatations of arteries supplying abdominal organs. Visceral artery aneurysms include both true aneurysms and pseudoaneurysms. Owing to different clinical manifestations and a unique, specific, pathology, renal artery aneurysms are discussed separate...

Vulval neoplasms

Vulval neoplasms are rare and mostly seen in elderly female patients. Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is the most common malignancy of the vulva and only 30% of them are associated with oncogenic human papillomaviruses (HPVs). Pathology Squamous neoplastic lesions Premalignant classic vulvar...

Wackenheims line

Wackenheims line (also known as the clivus canal line or basilar line) is formed by drawing a line along the clivus and extending it inferiorly to the upper cervical canal. Normally the tip of the dens is ventral and tangential to this line. In basilar invagination odontoid process transects th...

Wartenberg syndrome

Wartenberg syndrome also known as cheiralgia paresthetica is due to compression of the superficial branch of the radial nerve in the distal forearm. It can be secondary to tight watch band or handcuffs, compression from distal radius fracture or idiopathic. Clinical presentation Patients pres...

Weight loss

A clinical presentation of weight loss is extremely common and often a source of marked anxiety for the patient. The commonest cause of unintentional weight loss (UWI) is gastrointestinal tract disease, and not malignancy. Terminology The published literature lacks a consistent definition of w...

Well-defined breast cancers (differential)

Certain well-defined breast cancers tend to lack the characteristic spiculation and can give false reassurance of more benign entities on both ultrasound and mammography. These include: certain high grade invasive ductal carcinomas: not enough time for a desmoplastic reaction to form spiculatio...

White coat hypertension

White coat hypertension (abbreviated alternatively as WCH or WCHT), not to be confused with the white coat effect (WCE), is commonly defined as typical in-clinic blood pressure (BP) measurements of 140/90 mm Hg or more in the presence of multiple daytime out-of-clinic home or ambulatory BP readi...

White matter changes in HIV

White matter changes in HIV have overlapping appearances and varied in etiology. These can be divided into: primary effects of HIV opportunistic infection neoplasms vascular disease metabolic and nutritional disorders Primary effects of HIV HIV encephalitis Opportunistic infection cytom...

WHO classification of tumors of soft tissue

The World Health Organization (WHO) classification of soft tissue tumors is the most widely used pathologic classification system for such disorders. The current revision, part of the 5th edition of the WHO series, was published in 2020 and is reflected in the article below 1. Classification A...

Widening of interpedicular distance

The interpedicular distance, which is the distance measured between the pedicles on frontal/coronal imaging, can be widened in a number of situations. Pathology Etiology diastematomyelia syringomyelia conditions that can cause dural ectasia (can potentially cause widening) Marfan syndrome ...

Widening of the presacral space (differential)

Widening of the presacral space is one of the diagnostic indicators of the diseases involving pelvic pathology and rectal involvement. It is ideally measured on barium studies at the level of S3/4 disc level on lateral radiographs and the normal value of the presacral space is <15 mm in adults....

Winking owl sign (spine)

The (absent) pedicle sign, also called the winking owl sign, occurs on plain radiograph of the spine when a pedicle is absent 5. The term, winking owl sign, where the missing pedicle corresponds to the closed eye, the contralateral pedicle to the other round open eye, and the spinous process to...

X-ray artifacts

X-ray artifacts can present in a variety of ways including abnormal shadows noted on a radiograph or degraded image quality, and have been produced by artificial means from hardware failure, operator error and software (post-processing) artifacts. There are common and distinct artifacts for fi...

Updating… Please wait.

Unable to process the form. Check for errors and try again.

Thank you for updating your details.