Musculoskeletal Imaging

Motheaten bone destruction

a pattern of bone loss observed on radiographs, indicating a more aggressive process than in geographic bone destruction but perhaps less aggressive than in permeative bone destruction. In the motheaten pattern, the lesional margins are less well defined and the transitional zone from normal to abnormal bone is longer than in the geographic pattern. Typically the motheaten pattern in seen in patients with malignant bone tumours and osteomyelitis, although in some cases benign processes such as eosinophilic granuloma may also show this pattern.

DR