2/First, a rule of thumb—or rather a rule of elbow! You have 10 fingers. If you divide that in half, you get 5. Similarly, if you divide your arm in half at the elbow, you get 5--C5 that is! C5 radiates towards the elbow. So if it radiates below this, it is > C5 & above is < C5
3/So let’s start with C2. C2 predominantly radiates along the dorsal aspect of the scalp, as it supplies the greater occipital nerve. I remember this bc the number 2 has a swan like neck that mimics the contour of the back of the head and its distribution
4/Next is C3. C3 starts radiating right around the ear and circles around to the front of the neck, as it is a contributor to the great auricular nerve and anterior cutaneous nerve of the neck. I remember how it starts bc the number 3 looks like those big grandpa ears.
5/C4 radiates along the suprclavicular fossa, as it helps innervate the supraclavicular nerve, and goes towards the deltoid. I remember this because the triangular part of the number 4 looks the bulging deltoids that you always see on TV, but never in real life 😂
6/I remember C5 using that general rule that half of the number of fingers (5) equals halfway down the arm (elbow). C5 radiates towards the elbow.
7/C6 radiates to the thumb. I remember this because when you count to 6, you use up all the fingers on one hand and then end on the thumb of the next hand. So you end on a thumb when you count to 6 and C6 radiates to the thumb
8/We only have two cervical nerves left (C7, C8) for the 4 fingers left. So we will just use every other finger. So starting with C6 at the thumb—skip a finger gets you to the middle finger, that’s C7, skip the next finger gets you to the pinky, and that’s C8!
9/Now you know where in the c-spine to look when a patient has pain radiating from the neck—but remember there are subtleties to this & these are general guidelines to help you. Hopefully, remembering cervical radicular pain distributions will no longer be a pain in the neck!
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1/Do you get a Broca’s aphasia trying remember the location of Broca's area?
Does trying to remember inferior frontal gyrus anatomy leave you speechless?
Don't be at a loss for words when it comes to Broca's area
Here’s a 🧵to help you remember the anatomy of this key region!
2/Anatomy of the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) is best seen on the sagittal images, where it looks like the McDonald’s arches.
So, to find this area on MR, I open the sagittal images & scroll until I see the arches. When it comes to this method of finding the IFG, i’m lovin it.
3/Inferior frontal gyrus also looks like a sideways 3, if you prefer. This 3 is helpful bc the inferior frontal gyrus has 3 parts—called pars
1/Need help reading spine imaging? I’ve got your back!
It’s as easy as ABC!
A thread about an easy mnemonic you can use on every single spine study you see to increase your speed & make sure you never miss a thing!
2/A is for alignment
Look for: (1) Unstable injuries
(2) Malalignment that causes early degenerative change. Abnormal motion causes spinal elements to abnormally move against each other, like grinding teeth wears down teeth—this wears down the spine
3/B is for bones.
On CT, the most important thing to look for w/bones is fractures. You may see focal bony lesions, but you may not
On MR, it is the opposite—you can see marrow lesions easily but you may or may not see edema associated w/fractures if the fracture is subtle
@TheAJNR 2/Vascular cognitive impairment, or its most serious form, vascular dementia, used to be called multi-infarct dementia.
It was thought dementia directly resulted from brain volume loss from infarcts, w/the thought that 50-100cc of infarcted related volume loss caused dementia
@TheAJNR 3/But that’s now outdated. We now know vascular dementia results from diverse pathologies that all share a common vascular origin.
It’s possible to lose little volume from infarct & still result in dementia.
So if infarcts are common—which contribute to vascular dementia?