Roentgenologic aspects of bone islands.

A review of radiographs of 143 Adult Health Study and 46 non-sample subjects made over a period of 23 years established sites, sizes, ages at detection, and prevalence of 209 bone islands in 189 subjects. Except for 18 new bone islands, all appeared during the period of observation. Twenty-six of them changed: of these, 21 enlarged, 4 became smaller, and 1 disappeared. There was no association with atomic bomb radiation dose. Bone islands were more frequent in the pelvis and femora but often occurred in the ribs. Five bone islands in adolescents enlarged proportionally to bone growth, suggesting that they often participate metabolically in the normal osseous system. Bone islands must be differentiated from osteoblastic metastases.