Hello everyone!
I always find X rays quite confusing especially when they appear same.
It's a short post about differentiating bone tumors.
Soap bubble appearance on X ray is expansile, eccentric vaguely trabeculated space having thin sharp defined sclerotic margins.
Mostly seen in bone tumors and other bone lesions.
On X ray they all appear same, only way to differentiate them is to know their location and other associated factors.
Commonly seen in
1) Aneurysmal bone cysts-
Location of ABC is Metaphysis.
It occurs in younger age group i.e less
than 20 years. So the X ray of such
patient will have non fused and
immature bone.
Preferred sites are long bones of upper and lower limb, especially femur.
2) Giant cell tumor(osteoclastoma) -
Location of GCT is epiphysis
Here the prevalent age group is 20-40, which means an adult sketetal structure.
While the preferred sites are same like ABC.
So if one see epiphyseal lesion with soap bubble appearance in mature bone, it has to be Giant cell tumor.
GCT presents with other classical signs of Egg shell crackling on palpitations.
Giant cells on histology.
Which are NOT the tumor cells. So its one of the example of misnomers. They are meant to misguide you.
Thats it :)
Stay awesome
-Khushboo
