step-off sign

step-off sign

Imaging A step-like central defect seen on multiple adjacent vertebral bodies, typical of sickle cell anemia, attributed to blood stasis and ischemia, which slows the growth of the vertebra's cartilaginous growth plate; because the peripheral portion of the vertebral growth plate has a different blood supply, the vertebral body develops in a lop-sided–step-like fashion; the SOS has been described in Gaucher disease, and is attributed to recuperation of peripheral growth after the vertebral body has collapsed.

McGraw-Hill Concise Dictionary of Modern Medicine. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.