Intravertebral gaseous lucency. Apropos of 7 new cases
Wendling, D.; Cassou, M.; Guidet, M.
Revue du Rhumatisme et des Maladies Osteo-Articulaires 50(8-9): 607-612
1983
ISSN/ISBN: 0035-2659 PMID: 6635515 Document Number: 206401
The authors report a personal series of 7 new cases with an appearance of intra-vertebral gaseous lucency, which was described by Maldague et al. [16] in 1978. They found the majority of the features of the disease as described in the 44 cases reported in the literature: advanced age, female predominance, predilection for the thoraco-lumbar junction, constancy of diffuse bony demineralization and the possibility of metabolic disturbances. Case no 2 suggests the hypothesis of a pathology induced by bismuth salts and cases no 3 and 4 raise the question of the benign nature of this appearance. Finally, the authors show that this image is not so much rare as mis-diagnosed. 4 of the 7 cases were found during a retrospective study of 140 case-files.