Benign and malignant processes: normal values and differentiation with chemical shift MR imaging in vertebral marrow.

Purpose: To establish retrospectively a range of values for signal intensity change in normal vertebral marrow by using chemical shift magnetic resonance (MR) imaging and to assess the use of this technique in differentiating benign from malignant marrow abnormalities.

Materials And Methods: Institutional Review Board approval for this retrospective, HIPAA-compliant study was obtained; informed consent was waived. A total of 569 normal vertebrae in 75 patients (42 women, 33 men; mean age, 57.

Thoracic spine disc-related abnormalities: longitudinal MR imaging assessment.

Objective: To describe and characterize the temporal changes in disc-related disorders of the thoracic spine using MR imaging.

Design And Patients: A retrospective longitudinal cohort study was carried out of 40 patients with two sequential thoracic spine MR images at variable intervals. The images were assessed for baseline presence of, new incidence of and changes in disc herniation, degenerative disc disease, endplate marrow signal alteration and Schmorl nodes.