A posterior epidural mass causing paraparesis in a 20-year-old healthy individual

We present a case of a posterior epidural abscess at the thoracic vertebral level causing paraparesia in a young, healthy individual with no otherwise predisposing factors, with normal laboratory findings, as diagnosed using fat-suppressed MR imaging. Spinal epidural abscess is a rare condition, encountered mostly in the midthoracic or lower lumbar vertebral levels of elderly patients, that has a high mortality and morbidity (18-31%) when diagnosis and treatment is delayed. It is rarely spontaneous and is usually accompanied by spinal osteomyelitis. Diagnosis is rather easy in cases of vertebral osteomyelitis or when classical clinical, laboratory and imaging findings are present. However, cases of spontaneous development, with no predisposing factors, and lack of abscess suggesting clinical and laboratory findings may be a diagnostic challenge. In such cases, other posterior epidural masses such as schwannoma, neurofibroma, meningioma and hematoma should be considered in the differential diagnosis. Both the clinician and the radiology physician should have a high suspicion of epidural abscesses, because their early diagnosis and treatment is important. In addition to routine MR images, fat-suppressed MR images prove helpful in the diagnosis of spontaneous epidural abscesses by showing the inflammatory changes in the paraspinal area

A Rare Cause of Acute Abdominal Pain: Primary Appendagitis

Primary appendagitis epiploica - one of the causes of acute abdominal pain - is a self-limited rare benign inflammatory condition involving the colonic epiploic appendages. Their therapy is conservative and clinically mimics other conditions requiring surgery such as acute appendicitis or omental torsion. However, being a quite rare condition is the reason they are usually neglected by both the surgeon and the radiologist. However the computed tomography (CT) findings are rather characteristic and pathognomonic. Thus, to consider CT as the diagnostic modality of choice is extremely important in order to diagnose the condition and to avoid unnecessary surgical interventions. This is a paper reporting an acute abdominal pain case of primary appendicitis epiploica diagnosed using computed tomography

The Rarest of the Rare: Crossed Fused Renal Ectopia of the Superior Ectopia Type

Crossed fused renal ectopia is a rare congenital anomaly of the urinary system where one kidney crosses over to opposite side and the parenchyma of the two kidneys fuse. Herein, we present an atypical CFRE case whose renal anatomy does not exactly match any of the already defined CFRE types. Both of the kidneys are ectopic with the crossed ectopic right kidney lying superiorly and fused to the upper pole of the left kidney. Renal arteries were originating from the common iliac arteries. A focal 90% stenosis was observed on the right main renal artery. The patient is borderline hypertensive

Arthroscopic excision of elastofibroma dorsi at scapulothoracic joint: a surgical technique

Elastofibroma dorsi is a rare soft tissue pseudotumor which is located at the anteroinferior aspect of the scapula. In this article, we report a 19-year-old female case who had arthroscopic marginal excision of elastofibroma dorsi at the scapulothoracic joint without recurrences during follow-up. The artiaroscopic marginal excision of the elastofibroma dorsi may have good clinical results in selected cases

Sex differences in adult craniofacial parameters

To compare normal male and female craniofacial parameters in adults and evaluate associations of sex and intercochlear distance with other craniofacial parameters. In 60 normal adults (30 men and 30 women) who had no otitis media, craniofacial parameters were measured retrospectively on two-dimensional reformatted computed tomography scans. Compared with women, men had significantly greater mean osseous auditory tube length, cartilaginous auditory tube length, mastoid length, intercochlear distance, sella to posterior nasal spine distance, sella to basion distance, and nasopharynx sagittal area. The intercochlear distance was significantly correlated with mastoid depth, midpoint of the pharyngeal opening distance, sella to nasion distance, and nasopharynx sagittal area and inversely with angle of the auditory tube. Most men and women had Korner septum present, and mean thickness of Korner septum was significantly greater in men than women. Some craniofacial parameters, especially vertical parameters, differ with sex. These differences begin in childhood and continue in adulthood. Sex must be considered when planning a craniofacial morphologic study, and results of a craniofacial morphologic study should be evaluated with caution when there is no sex matching of the patient and control groups