No abstract

This study reports the sonographic and computed tomography (CT) findings in seven infants and neonates with intracranial calcifications and a spectrum of underlying disorders, including toxoplasmosis, cytomegalic inclusion disease, transverse/straight sinus thrombosis, and probable anoxia. Neurotropic infectious disease usually produced clumped or subependymal calcifications accompanied by sometimes bizarre ventricular configurations and prominent periventricular cystic encephalomalacia. Sonography failed to identify prospectively intracranial calcifications in two of the three patients without infection, although calcifications were visible in retrospect. Overall, CT provided optimum visualization of intracranial calcifications.

Spinal CT scans, plain radiographs, and medical records of 81 patients with an abnormal pars interarticularis were reviewed to define the CT criteria for spondylolysis. In many cases, it was difficult to detect because it simulated the adjacent facet joints; however, it could be differentiated by careful analysis of the section level and the contiguous facet joints, which usually had regular cortical surfaces (in contrast to the pars defects). Spondylolysis was evident on the lateral localizer image in most cases. In some patients the pars appeared abnormally narrow and elongated or sclerotic as well as interrupted. In a few cases, CT demonstrated a pars defect which was not effectively shown by the plain radiographs. In one patient, a herniated disk was also seen.

No abstract

The CT appearance of the pterygopalatine fossa is described in detail. Anatomic and CT sections were compared in cadavers and patients in axial and coronal CT planes to identify the osseous configuration and vascular and neural contents of the fossa. The normal fat, soft-tissue, and osseous margins are altered by neoplasms in the fossa. CT is an effective technique to evaluate the fossa and contiguous area.