A Report on Spine Related Disorders

Tom Faciszewski^*
*Correspondence: Tom Faciszewski, Emergency Medicine Center, University of California–Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States, Email:

Brief Report

The spine is the central stabilizing element of the skeleton. It can be affected by numerous disorders, many of which have the potential to damage nervous structures and to cause neurologic sequelae. Radiologic imaging, in correlation with the patient’s history and clinical findings, plays a major role in the differential diagnosis of these disorders. Examinations of the spine therefore make up a substantial part of all radiological examinations, especially if radiographic and magnetic resonance imaging is considered. This issue of the European Journal of Radiology gives an overview on a broad spectrum of spine disorders from a differential diagnostic view. On one hand, it covers frequent or almost ubiquitous disorders, for instance degenerative disorders, which nowadays represent an important economical factor and will become even more important due to the future demographic development. On the other hand, it deals with disorders found infrequently, for instance tumorous and tumour-like lesions of the spine. These are especially important as differential diagnoses and their misdiagnosis can have serious sequelae.

erience in professional settings outside specialized centres. Therefore, the expert’s knowledge presented on these topics may be especially beneficial to many readers. In detail, the contribution on degenerative disorders of the spine gives an overview on the most recent state-of-the art imaging strategies. A focus is set in this article on the important correlation with clinical findings. Another contribution handles the topic of infectious disorders of the spine. These can cause major differential diagnostic problems especially in patients in which laboratory markers are obscured by additional, extra-spinal inflammation. It reports about the differences between children and adults with regard to infectious agents and mechanisms of infection. Tumorous and infectious changes can sometimes be difficult to differentiate, so that one contribution in the issue covers the differential diagnosis of tumorous and tumour-like lesions of the spine. A further contribution on the special topic of angiographic interventions in such lesions brings in therapeutic aspects. As these interventions require good interventional skills in combination with a professional setting in which these interventions are performed regularly, the article not only describes the technical side of these interventions but also gives an insight into the indications and contraindications.

Intentionally, the issue does not try to cover all interventional topics regarding the spine; this probably would have needed an issue of its own. Instead, another paper describes spinal anomalies from the paediatric radiologist’s and neuroradiologist’s view and especially deals with typical findings in ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging. Similarly, there is an article on scoliosis as a frequent disorder demanding for radiologic imaging. In contrast to all other articles in this issue, it handles imaging from the clinicians’ point of view. Besides typical findings, it outlines the diagnostic strategies based on clinical findings and therapeutic options. This article closes the circuit to clinical therapy. Finally, one article gives a state-of-the-art update on the imaging of traumatic conditions of the spine with a special focus on examination strategies with multi slice computed tomography and modern magnetic resonance imaging techniques. With the overview provided in this issue of the European Journal of Radiology, we try to give the reader a new insight and a better understanding of the interesting and demanding field of spine disorders.