Bone Marrow MRI : A Pattern-Based Approach

MRI provides the best means of imaging the bone marrow directly and of non-invasively assessing its composition. Normal age-related bone marrow changes, alterations related to red marrow reconversion, and pathological bone marrow processes generally conform to certain patterns that reflect the underlying marrow changes and can be clearly recognized on MR images. In addition to conventional pulse sequences, advanced MRI techniques such as Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced MRI and Diffusion-Weighted Imaging depict marrow changes at the microvascular and cellular level respectively. This book provides radiologists with in-depth information on the MRI appearances of normal, abnormal and treated marrow following a structured, pattern-based approach. MRI findings for various diseases that affect the bone marrow, particularly those of a malignant nature, are presented in detail. MRI pattern recognition not only offers a systematic approach to image interpretation and diagnosis but also has prognostic implications with regard to some disease entities. Each chapter includes a wealth of high-quality images, together with Key Points summarizing the most important information. In addition to radiologists, practitioners with an interest in hematology and oncology will find this textbook-atlas to be a valuable resource for the latest, clinically relevant advances in bone marrow imaging.