This 45-year-old male presents with lower back pain due to a motor vehicle accident. Have a look at images 1 through 7, and see how many findings catch your eye. Bone marrow edema within the L3 and L4 vertebral bodies nearly encompasses the entire L3 vertebral body and the majority of the L4 vertebral… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Spine
A close look at a transspatial thoracic spine abscess
This 55-year-old male patient has history of quadriplegia due to transsection of the upper cervical spinal cord (image 1, orange arrow). Within the last six months, the patient noticed an absence of muscle spasms from the lower lumbar and lower extremities. At the level of the T11-T12 intervertebral disc space, large loculated fluid collection /… Read more »
What sign is a can’t-miss in this case?
Case: A 64-year-old male presents with a three-year history of progressive back pain, lower limb weakness and unstable gait. He experiences no bowel or bladder difficulty and there is no history of prior trauma or spinal surgery. Physical examination revealed lower limb weakness with spasticity. Findings: A focal dorsal indentation of the thoracic spinal… Read more »
What has happened to this man’s spine?
This 44-year-old male presents with back and right leg pain. Take a look at the first two images without arrows before looking at the duplicate images with arrows. Q1 – The most likely diagnosis is: (a) Schwannoma (b) Meningioma (c) Epidural lipomatosis (d) Synovial cyst A1 – (d) Synovial cyst Synovial cysts are… Read more »
What is the cause of this patient’s weakness and ascending numbness?
This 48-year-old female has indicated lower extremity weakness and numbness. Using image 1, can you identify the abnormality? Dural arteriovenous fistula (AVF), the most common spinal vascular malformation, is evident in image 2 (green arrows). There are just too many hypointense “dots”. Dural AVF account for 65% of all vascular malformations of the spine…. Read more »
What is the hidden finding in this spine case?
This 77-year-old woman presents with longstanding back and left hip pain. This case is a good reminder that we are responsible for everything and we need to make sure to look at all of the images. With that in mind, what is the unexpected finding you might miss? Make sure you noted the mixed signal… Read more »
Where does this case fit on the liposarcoma spectrum?
This 60-year-old male presents with low back pain radiating to the anterior thigh and anterior calf within the last 6-8 months with no known injury. Where is the mass located? Do you think the mass is aggressive or nonaggressive? What is the differential diagnosis? Can you name the four types of liposarcoma? The mass… Read more »
