We report the case of a 50-year-old Japanese woman with SAPHO (synovitis-acne-pustulosis-hyperostosisosteomyelitis) syndrome. Radiographs showed osteosclerosis of the cervical and lumbar vertebrae, as well as osteosclerosis and osteolysis of the right femoral neck, resembling multiple metastatic bony lesions. Arriving at a diagnosis required hematological and imaging tests. Whole-body bone scin...

Stegosaurian dinosaurs have a quadrupedal stance, short forelimbs, short necks, and are generally considered to be low browsers. A new stegosaur, Miragaia longicollum gen. et sp. nov., from the Late Jurassic of Portugal, has a neck comprising at least 17 cervical vertebrae. This is eight additional cervical vertebrae when compared with the ancestral condition seen in basal ornithischians such a...

The authors report a 13-year-old female with shunted hydrocephalus who when evaluated for neck pain, was found to have not only fusion of cervical vertebrae but significant diminution of the cervical spine. Following our review of the classification of KFA and our case report, the current interpretation of Klippel and Feil's original description of KFA should be re-evaluated, and/or a new class...

Image analysis techniques are introduced for evaluating disc space narrowing of cervical vertebrae interfaces from X-ray images. Four scale-invariant, distance transform-based features are presented for characterizing the spacing between adjacent vertebrae. K-means and self-organizing map clustering techniques are applied to estimate the degree of disc space narrowing using a four grade (0-3) s...

Aetosaurs are armored pseudosuchian archosaurs widespread in Upper Triassic units. In South America, four taxa were previously recorded: Aetosauroides scagliai, Neoaetosauroides engaeus, Aetobarbakinoides brasiliensis, and Chilenosuchus forttae. Herein we describe a new Late Triassic juvenile aetosaur from the Santa Maria Formation of southern Brazil, Polesinesuchus aurelioi gen. et sp. nov., i...

Giraffidae is the only family of ruminants that is represented by two extant species; Okapia johnstoni and Giraffa camelopardalis. Of these taxa, O. johnstoni represents a typical short-necked ungulate, and G. camelopardalis exemplifies the most extreme cervical elongation seen in any ruminant. We utilize these two species to provide a comprehensive anatomic description of the cervical vertebra...

BACKGROUND Owls possess an extraordinary neck and head mobility. To understand this mobility it is necessary to have an anatomical description of cervical vertebrae with an emphasis on those criteria that are relevant for head positioning. No functional description specific to owls is available. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS X-ray films and micro-CT scans were recorded from American barn owl...

AIM Foramina transversaria (FT) are located on the transverse processes of cervical vertebrae. These foramina are known to exhibit variations with regard to size, shape and may even be absent or duplicated. The aims of this study are to investigate the shape, size and variations of FT in an ancient population and to point out the importance of double FT in the human anatomy. MAT...