Letter M
MYOSITIS OSSIFICANS
Bone formation within muscle after an injury to the muscle. This can be a source of muscle pain.
MYOCARDIAL
Anything related to heart.
MYELOPHATHY
Refers to a disease affecting the spinal cord. It can be related to arthritis with disc pushing on the spinal cord, trauma with direct injury to the cord, vascular where the blood supply is decreased, infectious or inflammatory, or related to a spinal cord tumor.
MYELOMALACIA
Literally means a “softening” of the spinal cord. This implies that the process affecting the spinal cord is long-standing or “chronic”. Usually the spinal cord shrinks and can undergo a “signal change” or different color on MRI.
MURPHY’S SIGN
Test to see if there is pain when the doctor is pressing down on your belly right over the gallbladder. Positive Murphy’s sign means there is pain, while negative Murphy’s sign means there is NO pain. Positive Murphy’s sign can be commonly seen with acute cholecystitis (“sick” gallbladder).
MULTIPLE MYELOMA
Type of cancer that can often involve bony destruction.
MULTILEVEL
Refers to multiple levels in the spinal cord. For example, if you radiology report says “multilevel spondylosis” it refers to arthritis at multiple spinal levels.
MUCOCELE
A mucous filled structure in the sinuses of the face. Usually results from a blockage. They can expand and cause symptoms of infection. They occur most commonly in adults. Usually surgery is needed to remove them.
MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging)
A study using magnetic fields to look inside the breast. This is done with intravenous contrast when looking for breast cancer. This is done without intravenous contrast when evaluating silicone breast implants for rupture.
MOTION ARTIFACT
A term used to describe a blurring of the images as a result of movement during the scan. Can occur with xray, CT, MRI, and nuclear medicine scans.
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