Benign and Malignant Processes: Normal Values and Differentiation with Chemical Shift MR Imaging in Vertebral Marrow

Abstract

Bone marrow in the vertebral bodies displays somewhat variable behavior at chemical shift MR imaging. Results suggest that a decrease in signal intensity greater than 20% on out-of-phase images compared with in-phase images should be used as a cutoff threshold for normalcy to allow distinction between benign and malignant causes of vertebral marrow abnormalities.