title: Fibrous dysplasia: magnetic resonance imaging appearance at 1.5 tesla.
abstract: Fibrous dysplasia has been described in a small number of cases in the literature as showing low signal intensity on T1- and T2-weighted magnetic resonance images. We reviewed magnetic resonance scans of 13 patients with fibrous dysplasia to determine if there might be a characteristic appearance. All lesions had sharply defined borders and were of intermediate signal intensity on T1-weighted images. With T2 weighting, six lesions (46%) showed high signal intensity, four (31%) showed persistent intermediate signal intensity, and three (23%) showed mixed intermediate and high signal intensity. Ten lesions (77%) had inhomogeneous signal intensity and three (23%) had homogeneous signal intensity. We concluded that fibrous dysplasia does not have a characteristic appearance on magnetic resonance imaging. However, magnetic resonance may be helpful in establishing the diagnosis of fibrous dysplasia if low to intermediate signal intensity is seen on both T1- and T2-weighted images. This situation occurred in 54% of our cases, whereas the other 46% had nonspecific signal characteristics indistinguishable from many other bone lesions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha 68105.
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Norris
authors.forename: P A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Kaplan
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pathria
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Greenway
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D005269:Femur / Q000473:pathology; D005357:Fibrous Dysplasia of Bone / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D006811:Humerus / Q000473:pathology; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D010384:Pelvic Bones / Q000473:pathology; D013977:Tibia / Q000473:pathology