Proceedings of the European Society of Musculoskeletal Radiology (ESSR) training module, Antwerp, 20-21.01.05. Part two: bone tumors. Benign bone lesions: characteristic imaging features.

Benign bone lesions are a fairly common finding in radiology practice. Often, the combination of patient's age and plain radiographic findings are sufficient for diagnosis and obviates the need for further imaging. Generally the following parameters should be assessed in the evaluation of a bone lesion: clinical features, age of the patient, location, size, pattern of bone destruction, cortical involvement, zone of transition, sclerotic margination and matrix calcification. Cross sectional imaging, such as CT or MRI complements radiography, especially in complex anatomical sites. This article reviews the spectrum of clinical and imaging appearances of the most common benign bone tumors.

Imaging of malignant bonetumors.

Diagnostic imaging plays a pivotal role in the initial detection, characterization, pre-operative assessment and long term follow-up of malignant bone tumors. The purpose of this brief review is to discuss the specific role of the different imaging modalities in the diagnostic work-up of malignant bone tumors. The imaging features, with emphasis on standard radiography, allowing differentiation, of malignant bone tumors, will be highlighted.

Proceedings of the SRBR-KBVR osteoarticular section meeting of June 29, 2004 in Antwerp. The variable imaging appearance of osteosarcoma.

The purpose of this brief review is to give an overview of the different imaging features of the various types of osteosarcoma, based on their macroscopic location within the musculoskeletal system. Further subdivision can be made by histological criteria and/or more specific location. Standard radiographic features allowing their differentiation will be highlighted. The value of cross-sectional imaging in the pre-operative staging, assessment of local extension, monitoring of response to treatment and guiding biopsy will be emphasized as well.

Accessory navicular bone: not such a normal variant.

The accessory navicular is often erroneously considered as a normal anatomic and roentgenographic variant. Three distinct types of accessory navicular bones have been described. The type 2 and 3 variants have been associated with pathologic conditions such as posterior tibial tendon tear and painful navicular syndrome and therefore should not be arbitrarily dismissed as a roentgenologic variant in a symptomatic patient. The pathogenesis and radiologic findings are discussed and illustrated.

Proceedings of the SRBR-KBVR Osteoarticular section meeting of October 18, 2003 in Antwerp--part two: imaging of foot anomalies.

Many conditions may produce pain in the foot region, including congenital or developmental anomalies, (micro-) traumatic or overuse syndromes, osteonecrosis, tumoral conditions, infectious and inflammatory disorders. The purpose of this review is twofold: to discuss the imaging features of a number of pathologic entities that elicit foot pain as a primary symptom and to comment which imaging technique should be used as the first modality.

Imaging anatomy of the ankle.

The purpose of this short review is to give an overview of the normal imaging anatomy of the ankle and the foot, required to understand pathologic conditions. The anatomy of the ankle and foot reflects the specific needs of the complex biomechanics of walking and running. Therefore, a short discussion of the biomechanics will precede the description of the ankle anatomy. For didactical reasons, the anatomic structures of the ankle and foot will be divided into medial, lateral, anterior and posterior compartments to help the reader conceptualise the particularly complex anatomy, and to describe the different structures in relation to each other. In a the second part the normal variants, which should not be interpreted as pathologic changes, will be discussed.

Paraspinal cervical calcifications associated with scleroderma.

Although soft tissue calcifications are well known to occur as a late manifestation in scleroderma, symptomatic paraspinal calcinosis is very rare. Clinically, patients present with focal neck pain, weakness or radiculopathy, and decreased range of motion of the neck. We describe the imaging features of a rare case of cervical paraspinal calcinosis in a 74-year-old woman with long-standing scleroderma. Standard radiography is usually sufficient to confirm the diagnosis, but CT-scan allows a more precise location of the calcifications around the facet joints, sometimes with associated erosions. The advantage of MRI is to evaluate the possible intraspinal extension of the calcifications in case of focal neurological symptomatology.