Articles

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More than 200 results
Article

Enlarged sella turcica (differential)

Enlargement of sella turcica can be seen in situations including the following: empty sella syndrome slight globular enlargement of the sella with no erosion, destruction or posterior displacement of dorsum sellae intracranial hypertension enlargement with erosion of anterior cortex of dorsu...
Article

Mosaic attenuation pattern in lung

Mosaic attenuation is a descriptive term used in describing a patchwork of regions of differing pulmonary attenuation on CT imaging. It is a non-specific finding, although is associated with the following: obstructive small airways disease: low attenuation regions are abnormal and reflect two p...
Article

Leptomeningeal enhancement

Leptomeningeal enhancement refers to a diffuse or focal gyriform or serpentine enhancement that can be seen in the following conditions: Diffuse meningitis pyogenic meningitis viral meningitis tuberculous meningitis (can also be focal) CNS cryptococcal infection coccidioidal meningitis (c...
Article

J-shaped sella

A J-shaped sella is a variant morphology of the sella turcica, whereby the tuberculum sellae is flattened, thus forming the straight edge of the "J". The dorsum sellae remains rounded and forms the loop of the "J". Differential diagnosis Differential diagnosis for a J-shaped sella includes 1,2...
Article

Parotid gland enlargement

Parotid gland enlargement (also known as parotidomegaly) has a wide differential given the significant breadth of pathology that can affect the parotid gland. These can be separated by a standard surgical sieve approach into infective, inflammatory, immune, neoplastic, infiltrative, and congenit...
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Diffuse pleural thickening

Diffuse pleural thickening refers to a morphological type of pleural thickening. It can occur from malignant as well as non-malignant causes, which include: diffuse pleural fibrosis / fibrothorax 6 asbestos-related pleural disease (asbestos related diffuse pleural thickening): typically seen a...
Article

Mediastinal lymph node enlargement

Mediastinal lymph node enlargement can occur from a wide range of pathologies and can be isolated or associated with lung pathology. Historically, a size cut-off of 10 mm short-axis diameter was used.  Terminology The term mediastinal lymphadenopathy implies lymph node disease and is not synon...
Article

Diaphragmatic rupture

Diaphragmatic rupture or injury often results from blunt abdominal trauma. The mechanism of injury is typically a motor-vehicle collision. Epidemiology Given that the most common mechanism is motor vehicle collisions, it is perhaps unsurprising that young men are most frequently affected. The ...
Article

Pure ground glass nodules

Pure ground glass lung nodules (pGGN's) are a subtype of ground glass lung nodules where there is no associated solid component. Pathology Etiology Apart from inflammatory foci they have been shown to represent various pathologies such as 1,3 adenocarcinoma in situ of lung minimally-invasiv...
Article

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...
Article

Pulmonary fibrosis

Pulmonary fibrosis is the preferred general term for the permanent replacement of lung parenchyma by connective tissue and is typically associated with functional impairment. A variety of insults cause focal or diffuse lung injury (mechanical, infectious, inflammatory, and iatrogenic). Lung repa...
Article

Pediatric clavicle abnormalities

The clavicle is a unique bone and as such it often displays unique pathology. The following is an attempt to summarize pediatric clavicle abnormalities. Pediatric bone tumors and tumor-like lesions of the clavicle majority of clavicular tumors are malignant Ewing sarcoma (most common) osteos...
Article

Infertility in the exam

It is important to have a systematic way of approaching a case with subfertility in the exam.  Ultrasound is the initial examination of choice. Always say that you would further assess the uterus with 3D ultrasound. You may also say that in my department we would perform a sonohysterogram or HS...
Article

Fat containing liver lesions

Fat containing liver lesions represent a variety of benign and malignant liver lesions may contain macroscopic and/or intracytoplasmic fat in sufficient quantities enabling characterization on imaging studies. Most fat-containing liver lesions (80%) in patients with cirrhosis are malignant, most...
Article

Lytic bone metastases

Lytic bone (osteolytic) metastases are distant tumor deposits of a primary tumor within bone characterized by a loss of bone with the destruction of the bone matrix. Epidemiology Lytic bone metastases are more common than sclerotic bone metastases. Diagnosis The diagnosis is usually establis...
Article

Apical cap

Apical caps cover the lung apices and often bilateral. They can be chronic, due to fibrosis or acute due to pleural or extra-pleural fluid. Epidemiology The frequency of chronic apical pleural thickening increases with age 3. There may be a slightly greater male predilection 7. Pathology Api...
Article

Obstruction of nasolacrimal drainage apparatus

Obstruction of nasolacrimal drainage apparatus results in epiphora and can be primary or secondary, congenital or acquired. Obstruction can occur at canalicular, lacrimal saccular, or nasolacrimal ductal (post-saccular) levels. Causes of obstruction Congenital obstruction persistence of the m...
Article

Cutaneous calcifications in breast imaging

Cutaneous calcifications in breast imaging can form in dermal sweat glands after low grade folliculitis and inspissation of sebaceous material. Calcifications may also form in moles and other skin lesions. The vast majority of calcifications are coincidental findings on mammography. Radiographi...
Article

Malignant vs benign gastric ulcer (barium)

Barium meal has been frequently used to differentiate malignant and benign gastric ulcers: Features suggesting benign gastric ulcer outpouching of ulcer crater beyond the gastric contour (exoluminal) smooth rounded and deep ulcer crater smooth ulcer mound smooth gastric folds that reach the...
Article

Bone tumors (overview)

There are a bewildering number of bone tumors with a wide variety of radiological appearances. For a formal and updated classification of bone tumors, see WHO classification of tumors of bone. bone-forming tumors osteoma osteoid osteoma osteoblastoma osteosarcoma cartilage-forming tumors ...

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