Diagnostic Imaging: Bone Flashcards
When radiography limbs, what can you look for in the soft tissues?
Swelling
Muscle wastage
Foreign material
Gas
Effusion
What is the best way to check the alignement of bones on radiographs?
Check alignment with adjacent bones
List five things that you can look at when looking at the cortices of bone
Outline - overall shape
Continuous? - nutrient foramen
Thickness - evidence
Periosteal surface - abnormal prominence or irregularity
Endosteal surface - changes are less easy to see
Describe what you should look for when looking at radiographs of medullary bone
Integrity of trabecular pattern
Changes in opacity
Which age and breeds are predisposed to panosteitis?
Usually <12 months old (reported up to 7 years)
Large breeds, especially GSD
Which bones does panosteitis usually affect and how is it seen on radiographs?
Affects long bones
On radiographs, medullary bone has increased opacity.
List three things that you can look at when radiographing articular surfaces
Contours of surfaces
Subchondral bone
Congruity
What are the two main responses of bone to injury/disease?
Bone loss or bone production
Describe how you may see bone loss on radiographs
Overall opacity reduces relative soft tissues
Thinning of cortices
Loss/thinning of medullary trabeculae
How much mineral loss is required in bone before it becomes radiographically apparent?
40%
List three multi/focal causes of bone loss
Infection
Neoplasia
Trauma
List two diffuse causes of bone loss
Disuse
Nutritional/metabolic
List four causes of bone production
Trauma
Neoplasia
Infection
Miscellaneous
List three features of an agressive, bone producing neoplasia.
Mixed production/destruction
No well-defined margin to lesion
Long ‘zone of transition’
List four features of a benign, bone producing neoplasia
Well marginated
Short ‘zone of transition’
Smooth, thinned cortices
Expansile but no cortical destruction
List two types of infection that will cause bone production and how this appears in the bone.
Haematogenous and osteomyelitis
Localises to metaphyses and has a mixed prodcution/lysis of bone
Which breeds are predisposed to a craniomandibular osteopathy and how does it show on a radiograph?
Terrier breeds
New bone on mandible/tympanic bullae/calvarium
How does hypertrophic osteopathy show on radiographs?
New bone production on the limb in response to a space-occupying lesion in the thorax or abdomen
‘Palisading’ periosteal new bone
How does calcinosis circumscripta present on radiographs?
Soft tissue mineralisation on ‘pressure points’
Describe how you can ‘age’ fractures from radiographs
Recent - ends well defined
7-10 days - rounder, less well defined ends
10-14 days - periosteal new bone
4-6 weeks - bony unionn
Remodelling thereafter
What is the difference between luxations and subluxations?
Luxations - complete separation
Subluxation - partial contact
Describe how nutritional secondary hyperparathyroidism will show on a radiograph
Generalised decrease in bone opacity
Thin cortices
Pathological completes or folding fractures
Normal growth plates
How may renal secondary hyperparathyroidism present
on radiographs?
Due to chronic renal failure
Skull most affected (rubber jaw)
Usually older animals
Which radiological features may you see in a case of rickets?
Wide physes
Flared metaphyses
Overall mineralisation normal
What causes rickets?
Lack of vitamin D
Where is hypervitaminosis A seen on a radiograph?
Periosteal new bone on cervical spine, rest of spine and limb joints
