Abstract
Images performed for clinical or for research purposes can harbor findings that are not anticipated because they don’t fall within what was expected when planning or requesting the examination. These findings can range from variations of the norm to pathologies requiring medical intervention. Findings with potential clinical relevance, so-called incidental findings, must be anticipated responsibly, a key responsibility of the radiology profession. This chapter will first describe the prevalence of incidental findings in neuroimaging, as well as a categorization to support deciding further management. This will be followed by a description of the spectrum and clinical relevance of normal neuroanatomical variants observed on diagnostic neuroimaging studies applying various radiological techniques. To avoid unnecessary follow-up or anxiety, it is important that radiologists recognize these as “leave me alone” observations.
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Vernooij, M.W., Yousry, T.A. (2019). Incidental Findings on Neuroimaging and Normal Variants That May Mimic Disease. In: Barkhof, F., Jäger, H., Thurnher, M., Rovira, À. (eds) Clinical Neuroradiology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68536-6_19
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