Musculoskeletal Imaging

The Section has extensive experience with diagnosing all varieties of diseases of the musculoskeletal system, including trauma and sports medicine, arthritis, and bone and soft tissue tumors.  Dedicated to the team approach to patient care, we actively participate in weekly Orthopedic and Rheumatology conferences in an effort to ensure collaborative services of the highest quality. In doing so, we are not only able to better correlate patients’ conditions and their imaging studies, but we provide consultative advice to our colleagues to ensure the safest and most accurate imaging examinations. As part of the University of Chicago Musculoskeletal Oncology Group, section faculty work closely with orthopedic surgeons, pathologists, and other physicians to provide excellence in care to patients with benign and malignant tumors of bone and soft tissue.

Injection of medications into joints, aspiration of cysts or infected fluid collections, and arthrography of prosthetic joints are among the many interventional procedures performed by our section. MR- and CT-arthrography are routinely provided to all levels of athletes, achieving the most detailed imaging evaluation of joints possible. In addition to performing minimally-invasive bone and soft tissue biopsies under ultrasonographic and CT guidance, the section also works closely with the Section of Vascular and Interventional Radiology to provide ablation procedures to treat painful lesions of bone, both benign and malignant.

The Musculoskeletal Imaging Section offers state of the art imaging of disorders of the bones, joints, and associated soft tissues using a wide variety of modalities, including conventional radiography, computed tomography (CT), ultrasonography and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).  A dedicated crew of Orthopaedic Radiology Technologists in the Duchossois Center for Advanced Medicine provides exquisite imaging of bone and joints using digital radiography.  Our state-of-the art multichannel CT scanners allow three-dimensional reconstructions of any body part, and scans are routinely requested by our surgeons performing complicated orthopaedic procedures or joint replacements; spectral CT also allows for reduction of metal artifact caused by orthopaedic prostheses, as well as advanced imaging of gout.  Our 1.5T and 3.0T magnetic resonance imaging scanners provide excellent imaging of bones, soft tissue, and joints such as the knee, shoulder, hip, elbow, and ankle, as well as detailed imaging of the hand, wrist and foot.  Many of our musculoskeletal ultrasound examinations are directly performed by our radiologists.

For more information regarding musculoskeletal imaging, select from the RadiologyInfo.org links below.

• Bone X-ray: https://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/info/bonerad
• Musculoskeletal MRI: https://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/info/muscmr
• Musculoskeletal Ultrasound: https://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/info/musculous
• Direct Arthrography: https://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/info/arthrog
• Bone Biopsy: https://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/info/bonebiopsy

We are primarily located in the Duchossois Center for Advanced Medicine (DCAM) adjacent to the Orthopaedic and Rheumatology outpatient clinics. This facilitates communication and consultation with other physicians specializing in disease processes of the bones, joints and associated soft tissues. Radiography is performed on-site by a team of specialized orthopaedic radiology technologists. In addition, using the Department’s sophisticated picture archiving and communication system, we can provide immediate interpretation of studies performed in the Bernard A. Mitchell Hospital, Comer Children’s Hospital, the Center for Care and Discovery, and our off-campus clinical areas.

Close collaboration with other members of the Musculoskeletal Oncology Group has resulted in publication of numerous papers in highly respected peer-reviewed journals focusing on diagnosis and treatment of benign and malignant musculoskeletal tumors.  Furthermore, the members of the Section have lectured and written articles on a multitude of topics including spinal trauma, knee and elbow injuries in athletes, arthritis, hip replacement imaging, magnetic resonance imaging of the upper and lower extremities, and metabolic bone disease.

As a result of their commitment to education, the members of the Section are highly regarded as educators by the medical students, radiology residents, musculoskeletal radiology fellows, and countless other physicians that they have enjoyed having the opportunity to teach.