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 continuously improved upon by countless contributing members. Our dedicated editors oversee each edit for accuracy and style. Find out more about articles.
45 results found
Article
Retroaortic anomalous coronary sign (echocardiography)
The retroaortic anomalous coronary (RAC) sign describes the sonographic appearance of an anomalous left coronary artery traveling posteriorly to the aortic root. It is most commonly observed with anomalous origin of the left circumflex artery from the right sinus of Valsalva, but is also describ...
Article
Upper lobe pulmonary venous diversion
Upper lobe pulmonary venous diversion (also described as cephalisation of the pulmonary veins) reflects elevation of left atrial pressure and is an early sign of pulmonary edema.
Clinical presentation
The normal left atrial pressure is 5-10 mmHg. An elevation of left atrial pressure to 10-15 m...
Article
Contrast level within inferior vena cava
A dependent contrast level within the inferior vena cava is a situation that can be observed in some cases with inferior vena caval contrast reflux. Its presence is usually associated with very poor cardiac output and can be accompanied by dependent layering of venous refluxed contrast within th...
Article
Inferior vena caval contrast reflux
Reflux of contrast into inferior vena cava can be common findings seen on CT. It is considered a specific but insensitive sign of right-sided heart disease / right heart dysfunction at low contrast injection rates although the usefulness decreases with high injection rates.
Conditions associate...
Article
Napkin-ring sign (heart)
The napkin-ring sign is a feature of high-risk coronary artery atherosclerotic plaque on CT coronary angiogram (coronary CTA). It has been shown to possess a high predictive value in predicting future cardiac events and is considered one of the imaging correlates of an unstable plaque. It is one...
Article
Double density sign (left atrium)
The double-density sign, also known as the double right heart border, is seen on frontal chest radiographs in the presence of left atrial enlargement, and occurs when the right side of the left atrium extends behind the right cardiac shadow, indenting the adjacent lung and forming its own distin...
Article
Septal bounce
Septal bounce is a sign of ventricular interdependence on echocardiography, cardiac CT, and cardiac MRI, manifested by paradoxical interventricular septal movement during early diastole (i.e. initial septal movement towards and then away from the left ventricle) seen mainly in constrictive peric...
Article
Deer horn sign
The deer horn sign is a reliable sign and an important diagnostic clue of passive congestive hepatopathy due to heart failure on ultrasonography 1. In the deer horn sign, the head is formed by a dilated inferior cava, and the engorged hepatic veins resemble horns. It has also been described as t...
Article
60/60 sign (echocardiography)
The 60/60 sign in echocardiography refers to the coexistence of a truncated right ventricular outflow tract acceleration time (AT <60 ms) with a pulmonary arterial systolic pressure (PASP) of less than 60 mmHg (but more than 30 mmHg). In the presence of right ventricular failure, it is consisten...
Article
Third mogul sign
The third mogul sign can be seen on frontal chest radiograph in the presence of left atrial enlargement. It refers to an extra mogul or bump along the upper left cardiac silhouette just below the left main bronchus.
The third mogul sign commonly represents the enlarged left atrial appendage, pa...
Article
Roesler sign
Roesler sign is the name given to the inferior rib notching seen in coarctation of the aorta. Although by no means pathognomonic, the sign is fairly specific. Although many other causes of inferior rib notching have been recorded most of them are very rare 1.
Strictly-speaking it is only called...
Article
Atrial escape
Atrial escape refers to a chest x-ray sign of massive left atrial enlargement and is an exaggerated version of the double density sign.
Normally, the right border of the left atrium is not visible. As it enlarges it forms a distinct border projecting through the right heart shadow, medial to ...
Article
Walking man sign (chest x-ray)
The walking man sign is seen on a lateral chest radiograph and is a sign of left atrial enlargement. It results from posterior displacement of the left main bronchus such that it no longer overlaps the right bronchus. The left and right bronchus thus appear as an inverted 'V', mimicking the legs...
Article
McConnell's sign (echocardiography)
The McConnell's sign describes a regional pattern of acute right ventricular dysfunction on transthoracic echocardiography first observed in a cohort of patients with acute pulmonary thromboembolism. In contrast to the global wall motion abnormalities observed in chronic right ventricular dysfun...
Article
Moguls of the heart
The 'moguls of the heart' refer to the bulges of the cardiomediastinal contour on frontal chest radiographs. The cardiomediastinal bulges are likened to skiing moguls (bumps of packed snow on a mountainside sculptured by turning skis). Awareness of their usual locations and etiologies is helpful...
Article
Shmoo sign
Shmoo sign refers to the appearance of a prominent, rounded left ventricle and dilated aorta on a plain PA chest radiograph giving the appearance of Shmoo, a fictional cartoon character in the comic strip Li'l Abner, which first appeared in 1948 5. This sign is indicative of left ventricular enl...
Article
Transient ischemic dilatation
Transient ischemic dilatation (TID) is a paradoxical phenomenon seen in myocardial perfusion SPECT imaging.
With severe balanced coronary artery disease, myocardial ischemia may result in apparent enlargement of the left ventricular cavity during stress. The cause of this is not entirely clea...
Article
Ventricular interdependence
Ventricular interdependence (or ventricular coupling) is a phenomenon whereby the function of one ventricle is altered by changes in the filling of the other ventricle. This leads to a volume increase of one ventricle associated with a decreased volume in the opposite ventricle 1.
This conditio...
Article
Flail leaflet
Flail leaflet or leaflet flail refers to an abnormally increased leaflet mobility of the atrioventricular valves associated with valvular prolapse and a systolic excursion of the leaflet tip or edge into the atria.
Pathology
Flail leaflet can be seen in leaflets of the mitral and tricuspid val...
Article
Chen sign
Chen sign on chest radiography is the prominence of the left basal pulmonary vasculature, compared to the right, seen in valvular pulmonary stenosis. It is due to the asymmetric increase in pulmonary blood flow to the left lung due to preferential blood flow into the left pulmonary artery after ...
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