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.
20 results found
Article
Rule of Spence
The Rule of Spence is a radiologic method to evaluate the likelihood of injury to the transverse atlantal ligament (TAL) on an open mouth AP (“peg”) radiograph. As originally framed, if the combined projection of the lateral masses of the atlas is more than 6.9 mm beyond the lateral masses of th...
Article
Cobb angle
The Cobb angle is the most widely used measurement to quantify the magnitude of spinal deformities, especially scoliosis, on plain radiographs. Scoliosis is a lateral spinal curvature with a Cobb angle of >10° 4. The Cobb angle technique can also assess the degree of kyphosis or lordosis in the ...
Article
Intradural spinal mass lesions (an approach)
Intradural spinal mass lesions are relatively uncommon, compared to intracranial or extradural masses, and can be challenging to diagnose. Additionally, the need for a pre-operative/non-operative diagnosis is in many ways greater as biopsy of lesions within the cord has the potential of devastat...
Article
Denver criteria for blunt cerebrovascular injury
The Denver criteria are a set of screening criteria used to determine when CT angiography of the neck is indicated to detect blunt cerebrovascular injury (BCVI) in patients presenting after trauma.
Screening criteria
The Denver criteria were initially developed in 1996 1, modified in 2005 to ...
Article
Red and yellow flags for guiding imaging of lower back pain
Lower back pain (also known as lumbago) is very common and is often referred for imaging. However, the vast majority of cases are due to benign self-limiting causes which do not require imaging and resolve with conservative measures. Numerous authors have described various methods for supporting...
Article
Atlantodental interval
The atlantodental interval is used in the diagnosis of atlanto-occipital dissociation injuries and injuries of the atlas and axis.
Measurement
The anterior atlantodental interval is the horizontal distance between the posterior cortex of the anterior arch of the atlas (C1) and the anterior cor...
Article
Lumbar spine protocol (MRI)
The MRI lumbar spine protocol encompasses a set of MRI sequences for the routine assessment of the lumbar spine.
Note: This article aims to frame a general concept of an MRI protocol for the assessment of the lumbar spine. Protocol specifics will vary depending on MRI scanner type, specific har...
Article
Cervical spine protocol (MRI)
The MRI cervical spine protocol encompasses a set of MRI sequences for the routine assessment of the cervical spine.
Note: This article aims to frame a general concept of an MRI protocol for the assessment of the cervical spine. Protocol specifics will vary depending on MRI scanner type, specif...
Article
Thoracic spine protocol (MRI)
The MRI thoracic spine protocol encompasses a set of MRI sequences for the routine assessment of the thoracic spine.
Note: This article aims to frame a general concept of an MRI protocol for the assessment of the thoracic spine. An MR thoracic spine protocol might be combined with a cervical sp...
Article
Canal-to-body ratio of Torg and Pavlov
The canal-to-body ratio of Torg and Pavlov is a method of evaluating the degree of cervical canal stenosis on lateral cervical spine radiographs.
Terminology
This ratio is variously referred to as the Torg ratio 3, the Pavlov ratio 3,4, the Torg-Pavlov ratio 5, or the canal-to-body ratio 3.
M...
Article
Spinal cord tuberculoma
Spinal cord tuberculomas are rare compared to intracranial tuberculomas and can be challenging to diagnose particularly in individuals who are not from endemic areas.
Epidemiology
Only 0.2% of central nervous system tuberculosis shows evidence of spinal cord involvement, and among tuberculosi...
Article
Osteoporotic vs pathological vertebral fractures
Discriminating between acute osteoporotic and pathological vertebral fractures is sometimes challenging. This may be especially true in the elderly population, in which both osteoporosis and malignant disease often co-occur, and vertebral fractures of both kinds are common and indeed may coexist...
Article
Magnetic resonance neurography
Magnetic resonance neurography (MRN) is a relatively new non-invasive imaging technique for dedicated assessment of peripheral nerves.
It is used to assess peripheral nerve entrapments and impingements as well as localization and grading of nerve injuries and lesions.
Dedicated high-resolution...
Article
Coronal balance
Coronal balance is one of the features that needs to be assessed on long spine radiographs obtained for spinal deformity, particularly scoliosis. It measures whether or not the upper spine is located over the midline (normal) or off to one side.
Measurement
To assess coronal balance, a vertic...
Article
Intercristal line
The intercristal line (also known as Jacoby’s Line or Tuffier’s Line) is a horizontal line drawn across the highest points of both the iliac crests in an anteroposterior (AP) lumbar radiograph 1,2.
The intercristal line most often intersects the body of L4 or its inferior endplate in men and th...
Article
Sagittal balance
Sagittal balance forms part of the plain radiographic assessment of spinal deformity including kyphotic or lordotic deformities and scoliosis.
Usage
There are numerous ways of assessing this, using various bony landmarks and angles to evaluate whether or not a normal distribution of weight and...
Article
Pathology checklists
Pathology checklists are series of sometimes missed pathological entities possible to see on radiological studies. They are helpful when reporting a radiograph, ultrasound, or cross-sectional examination as a way to ensure that you fully review a film and don't fall foul of satisfaction of searc...
Article
Central sacral vertical line
The central sacral vertical line (CSVL) is used in the assessment of spinal scoliosis.
It is a line constructed on frontal films of the spine and pelvis to measure coronal balance, drawn as follows:
a line connecting the top of the iliac crests is drawn
a second line is drawn perpendicular t...
Article
Ventral cord syndrome
Ventral cord syndrome (also known as anterior cord syndrome) is one of the incomplete cord syndromes and affects the anterior parts of the cord resulting in a pattern of neurological dysfunction dominated by motor paralysis and loss of pain, temperature and autonomic function. Anterior spinal ar...
Article
Tuberculosis (musculoskeletal manifestations)
Musculoskeletal tuberculosis is always secondary to a primary lesion in the lung.
Epidemiology
The prevalence of the disease is around 30 million globally and 1-3% of the 30 million have involvement of their bones and/or joints. Mycobacterium tuberculosis is responsible for almost all of the c...
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