metrizamide and Athletic-Injuries

The "wink" sign of nerve root cut-off seen on metrizamide-enhanced computerized tomography correlates well with compression of a lumbar nerve by a herniated disk. Seven of 46 patients had normal or equivocal myelograms, but had definite nerve root cut-off on metrizamide-enhanced CT scan. All seven patients were found to have a herniated lumbar disk at operation or a diskogram positive for herniation at the time of chymopapain injection. The wink sign is an additional objective finding that can be used in assessing the patient with sciatica.

Topics: Adult; Athletic Injuries; Chymopapain; Female; Humans; Intervertebral Disc Displacement; Lumbar Vertebrae; Lumbosacral Region; Male; Metrizamide; Middle Aged; Myelography; Nerve Compression Syndromes; Radiographic Image Enhancement; Spinal Nerve Roots; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

Four days after a 32-year-old woman was hit in the right eye with a racquetball, a paralysis of the right third nerve developed. Computerized axial tomography with metrizamide demonstrated an arachnoid cyst in the interpeduncular fossa. After the cyst was surgically decompressed, the third-nerve paralysis cleared.

Topics: Adult; Arachnoid; Athletic Injuries; Cysts; Eye Injuries; Female; Humans; Metrizamide; Ophthalmoplegia; Sports; Tomography, X-Ray Computed