Case Study: Today’s phrase is Raindrop Skull
This is what multiple myeloma looks like with an x-ray or CT. This image is from a 46-year-old male, who died 3 months after being diagnosed. However, the median survival for Stage III multiple myeloma is 43 months.
https://www.cancer.org/cancer/multiple-myeloma/detection-diagnosis-staging/survival-rates.html
That’s probably old data so the number could actually be higher.
So what is multiple myeloma? It’s a blood cancer that affects your white blood cells. The problem with multiple myeloma is that it’s in your bone marrow. So as the cancer grows and doesn’t die, it crowds out the other cells in your bone marrow. You can read more about it here:
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/multiple-myeloma/symptoms-causes/syc-20353378
The image from Radiopaedia is better, IMO, at showing how this affects the bone and not the whole head. The presentation is called Raindrop Skull because the pattern is similar to raindrops scattering.
https://radiopaedia.org/cases/raindrop-skull
You can read more about CT here:
Medical Imaging 101 pt 2: CT
If you like this quick case study summary, you might like this one too.
Case Study: Today’s word is Pneumocephalus