What causes Licked candy stick appearance in bones on radiographs?
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Licked candy stick appearance is caused by tapering and resorption of the distal tips of bones such as metacarpals, metatarsals, phalanges, or clavicles. It is mainly seen in chronic inflammatory or infectious conditions including psoriatic arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and leprosy. These diseases result in bone erosion or osteolysis at the bone margins, leading to the characteristic tapered bone ends on radiographs and X-ray images.
Why is it called so?
The term originates from the visual resemblance of the tapered, eroded bone tips to candy sticks that appear to have been licked and thus thinned or shortened at the ends.
Pathophysiology
Chronic inflammation or infection leads to marginal bone erosion through processes such as pannus formation in rheumatoid arthritis, enthesitis and erosions in psoriatic arthritis, or nerve damage and subsequent bone resorption in leprosy. This causes progressive distal bone resorption and tapering of the bony shafts, producing the distinctive radiographic sign known as the Licked candy stick appearance.
Alternative names: None
Other associated named signs: In psoriatic arthritis, the Licked candy stick appearance may be accompanied by the pencil-in-cup deformity, another characteristic radiologic sign of joint erosion.
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