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

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.