MRI of Spinal Bone Marrow: Part 2, T1-Weighted Imaging-Based Differential Diagnosis

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this article is to review the structure of bone marrow and the differential diagnosis of bone marrow pathology on the basis of T1-weighted MRI patterns. CONCLUSION: Bone marrow is an organ that is evaluated routinely during MRI of the spine, particularly lumbar spine evaluation. Thus, it is one of the most commonly performed MRI examinations. T1-weighted MRI is a fundamental sequence in evaluating spinal marrow, and an understanding of T1-weighted MR signal abnormalities is important for the practicing radiologist.