Differentiation of acute osteoporotic from malignant vertebral compression fractures with conventional MRI and diffusion MR imaging

Abstract Aim To evaluate the role of using a single shot spin echoplanar DW sequence (SSSEP-DWI) compared to conventional MRI and contrast enhanced T1WI in differentiation between vertebral osteoporotic fractures and malignant compression fractures. The sensitivity and specificity of (SSSEP-DWI) will also be calculated. Patients and methods Sixty-eight acute vertebral compression fractures in 41 patients were imaged using conventional MRI, fat suppressed contrast enhanced T1WI and DW sequence on a 1.5 T MR machine. Quantitative assessment of the abnormal signal intensity was done by measuring apparent diffusion coefficients (ADCs). Also, the areas of abnormal signal intensity were compared to adjacent normal marrow. Results We had 38 benign fractures, and 30 malignant fractures. Post contrast enhancement showed sensitivity of 92% and specificity of 70% for malignant compression fractures. The hyperintense signal on DWI has 89% PPV for malignancy, while the sensitivity and specificity were 86% and 91% respectively. The mean ADC for malignant fractures was significantly lower than those of osteoporotic fractures (p = 0.0002). Conclusions SSSEP-DWI is a reliable adjunct parameter that supports conventional MRI in differentiating benign and malignant vertebral fractures.