An enostosis is a small area of
compact bone
A bone is a rigid organ that constitutes part of the skeleton in most vertebrate animals. Bones protect the various other organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells, store minerals, provide structure and support for the body, and ...
within the
cancellous bone
A bone is a rigid organ that constitutes part of the skeleton in most vertebrate animals. Bones protect the various other organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells, store minerals, provide structure and support for the body, an ...
. They are commonly seen as an incidental finding on
radiograph
Radiography is an imaging technique using X-rays, gamma rays, or similar ionizing radiation and non-ionizing radiation to view the internal form of an object. Applications of radiography include medical ("diagnostic" radiography and "therapeu ...
s or
CT scan
A computed tomography scan (CT scan), formerly called computed axial tomography scan (CAT scan), is a medical imaging technique used to obtain detailed internal images of the body. The personnel that perform CT scans are called radiographers or ...
s. They are typically very small and do not cause any symptoms. Their
radiodensity
Radiodensity (or radiopacity) is opacity to the radio wave and X-ray portion of the electromagnetic spectrum: that is, the relative inability of those kinds of electromagnetic radiation to pass through a particular material. Radiolucency or hypod ...
is generally similar to
cortical bone
A bone is a rigid organ that constitutes part of the skeleton in most vertebrate animals. Bones protect the various other organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells, store minerals, provide structure and support for the body, an ...
. No treatment is necessary. Multiple enostoses are present in
osteopoikilosis
Osteopoikilosis is a benign, autosomal dominant, sclerosing (hardening) dysplasia of bone characterized by the presence of numerous bone islands in the skeleton.
Presentation
The radiographic appearance of osteopoikilosis on an X-ray is charact ...
.
Spine
Enostosis is usually found in T1 to T7 for the thoracic spine and L2 to L3 in the lumbar spine. It consists of cortical bone merging with medullary bone with irregular margins. The shape of the lesion is round or oval with a thornlike margin, up to 2 cm in diameter. In both T1 and T2-weighted imaging, it shows low signal intensity. It is usually presented as a single lesion.
References
Further reading
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External links
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Musculoskeletal system
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