2022, Volume 15, Issue 11, pp 1449 – 1454

Unusual worm-like radiopacities in the radiographs of patients with cervical spondylosis

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Authors and Affiliations

Corresponding Author: Eric Chun-Pu Chu, New York Chiropractic and Physiotherapy Centre, EC Healthcare, Hong Kong SAR, China. E-mail: eric@nymg.com.hk

Abstract

This report describes three patients with cervical spondylosis whose diagnostic radiographs showed worm-like, irregularly curved radiopaque lines and strings in the head and neck region during routine chiropractic examinations. Such artifacts are frequently misinterpreted as parasitic infection, electrostatic discharges, detector image lag, fracture, or ligature wires. All three patients with worm-like radiopacities disclosed their 15–20 years of history of acupuncture treatment to relieve neck pain. The present cases of unexpected and coincidental findings may suggest a possible acupuncture-caused radiographic artifacts in the neck and jaw bones. In particular, the patient had previous gold thread treatments possibly associated with the observed radiographic artifacts. These cases may emphasize the importance of having a thorough understanding of patient history regarding unexpected radiographic artifacts.

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About this article

PMC ID: 9762373
PubMed ID: 36567841
DOI: 10.25122/jml-2022-0080

Article Publishing Date (print): 11 2022
Available Online: 

Journal information

ISSN Printing: 1844-122X
ISSN Online: 1844-3117
Journal Title: Journal of Medicine and Life

Copyright License: Open Access

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.


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