Faculty Bibliography

The diagnostic radiology match process has become less competitive over the past 5 years, and fewer U.S. medical students are choosing to pursue careers in diagnostic radiology. The current composition of the diagnostic radiology residency applicant pool reflects this change. Although many possible explanations exist for the decreased interest in radiology, all radiologists should have a vested interest in ensuring that radiology continues to attract the best and brightest medical students. Young and early career radiologists are in a particularly unique position to connect with medical students, and can have substantial effect on recruiting the brightest medical students into radiology. The purpose of this article is to review why young radiologists are vital to this recruitment and mentoring process, and provide multiple simple ways to advocate for radiology and share our passion for radiology with medical students.

Aggregomas are rare localized masses of monoclonal nonamyloid immunoglobulin light-chain deposits. To date, there have been only a few reports of isolated aggregomas, with the majority detailing renal, lymph node and brain deposition. We present a rare case of paraspinal aggregoma in a 67-year-old female who presented with a complaint of cough and chest pain. Imaging demonstrated a left-sided paravertebral mass extending from T7-T10. Pathological analysis showed lamellar deposition of extracellular eosinophilic material with an associated lymphoplasmacytic nonamyloid infiltrate. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a paraspinal aggregoma. While exceedingly rare, this tumor can be included in the radiologic differential diagnosis of paravertebral soft tissue tumors in adults. The observation of our case adds to the limited understanding of the etiology, pathogenesis, natural history, and treatment of nonamyloid light-chain depositions.