title: Signal characteristics of normal adult bone marrow in whole-body diffusion-weighted imaging.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Knowledge of the signal characteristics of normal adult bone marrow in whole-body diffusion-weighted (DW) images (WB-DWI) is essential for correctly interpreting DW images in clinical practice; however, these factors have not yet been clearly determined.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the signal characteristics of normal adult bone marrow in WB-DWI, to correlate these characteristics with age and gender, and to determine the causes of these phenomena.
  
  
  METHODS
  Ninety-eight healthy volunteers underwent WB-DWI (b = 0 and 800 s/mm(2)). Two radiologists visually evaluated the signal characteristics of bone marrow in DW images separately. One radiologist measured the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) of the thoracic and lumbar vertebrae, bilateral femur (including head, neck, and proximal and distal femoral shaft), bilateral humeral head, ilium, and scapula. The signal characteristics of normal bone marrow were analyzed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The visual evaluation results of DW images indicated that hyperintensity of bone marrow was more frequently seen in women aged 21-50 years (68.4%) than in men aged 21-50 years (3.3%) (P < 0.001), men aged 51-81 years (5.9%) (P < 0.001), and women aged 51-81 years (15.4%) (P = 0.001). However, no statistically significant difference was found between men and women aged 51-81 years (P = 0.565). The ADC of bone marrow was significantly higher in women than in men aged 21-50 years. Bone marrow ADC showed significant negative correlation with age in women but not in men.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The signal intensity of bone marrow varies with age and gender in DW images. ADC and the T2 shine-through effect contributed to the bone marrow signal intensity in DW images, and the latter effect may predominate.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, The Third Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Hebei Province Biomechanical Key Laboratory of Orthopedics, Shijiazhuang, Hebei, PR China Department of Radiology, The Second Hospital of Shijiazhuang, Shijiazhuang, Hebei, PR China.
authors.forename: Feng-Zhen
authors.initials: FZ
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, The Third Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Hebei Province Biomechanical Key Laboratory of Orthopedics, Shijiazhuang, Hebei, PR China jianlingcui@sina.com.
authors.forename: Jian-Ling
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, The Third Hospital of Shijiazhuang, Shijiazhuang, Hebei, PR China.
authors.forename: Shi-Lei
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, The Third Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Hebei Province Biomechanical Key Laboratory of Orthopedics, Shijiazhuang, Hebei, PR China.
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, The Third Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Hebei Province Biomechanical Key Laboratory of Orthopedics, Shijiazhuang, Hebei, PR China.
authors.forename: Ying-Cai
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, The Third Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Hebei Province Biomechanical Key Laboratory of Orthopedics, Shijiazhuang, Hebei, PR China.
authors.forename: Na
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, The Third Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Hebei Province Biomechanical Key Laboratory of Orthopedics, Shijiazhuang, Hebei, PR China.
authors.forename: Sheng-Jie
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Cui
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001853:Bone Marrow / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D005260:Female; D064368:Healthy Volunteers; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D051598:Whole Body Imaging
keywords: Bone marrow; T2 shine-through; apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC); normal; whole body-diffusion weighted imaging (WB-DWI)