Rugger-Jersey Spine

C.E. Dent (University College Hospital, London), in an invited commentary on a 1955 case report of secondary hyperparathyroidism by S. Karani, in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, said of the patient’s X-rays, ‘the vertebral bodies are more dense in the upper and lower parts than in their middle thus showing the appearance of horizontal striations which Dr Hodson and I are beginning to call the ‘rugger-jersey’ sign’ ¹ (Figure 1). The pattern was apparently reminiscent of the alternating colored ‘hoops’ on a rugby players jersey, a design that was popular at the time (Figure 2). Dent was a co-author of another earlier paper that discussed osteosclerotic findings in patients with chronic renal failure ² . Three cases were discussed. Two of the patients had ‘rugger-jersey’ spine changes described, although the term was not used in that article. Dent and Hodson ³ also published a review article in 1954 of radiologic changes in metabolic disorders that also showed their leading role in this subject area. Figure 1 ‘Lumbar spine of case 2, showing increased density of upper and lower parts of each vertebral body.’ Reprinted from Crawford et al.<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref69_2"> ² </xref> Osteosclerosis associated with chronic renal failure. Loncet, 1954, <bold>ii,</bold> 981–988, with permission of The Lancet Ltd https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781003076568/34c29fd5-5662-4e8f-b58c-badd7fa5d724/content/fig69_1_B.jpg"/> Figure 2 ‘Hooped’ rugger jersey of Rolls Royce Rugby Club 1950–51. Photograph courtesy of Dr K.J. Fairbairn, Derby, UK https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781003076568/34c29fd5-5662-4e8f-b58c-badd7fa5d724/content/fig69_2_B.jpg"/>