title: Unilateral hyperplasia of a cervical spinous process as a rare congenital variant of the spine.
abstract: Congenital variants of the cervical spine may mimic traumatic lesions and may cause recurrent episodes of pain. We report a 24-year-old female patient with chronic neck pain who had marked unilateral hyperplasia of the spinous process of the seventh cervical vertebra. CT and MRI clearly depicted the abnormality and, furthermore, ruled out posttraumatic spinal changes. To our knowledge, our case is the first patient reported with this rare congenital variant diagnosed by cross-sectional imaging.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Diagnostic Radiology, Interventional Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, BG Clinics "Bergmannsheil", Ruhr University of Bochum, D-44789 Bochum, Germany. christoph.heyer@rub.de
authors.forename: Christoph M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Heyer
authors.forename: Volkmar
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Nicolas
authors.forename: Soeren A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Peters
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002574:Cervical Vertebrae / Q000002:abnormalities*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006965:Hyperplasia; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed