Magnetic tomography in the examination of edema and pain in the leg

: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used to investigate 38 patients suffering from leg oedema or pain of various etiology. Spin echo series with 10 mm transverse slices of both legs were obtained. Soft tissue changes were visualized best by T2-weighted sequences. Characteristic changes could be observed by MR images of patients with closed compartment syndrome (n = 2), chronic lymph oedema (n = 10) and post-reconstructive leg oedema following vascular surgery (n = 14). MRI can also show typical soft tissue changes in patients with deep vein thrombosis (n = 5) or post-thrombotic syndrome (n = 3). For most of these conditions, the diagnosis can usually be established using simpler methods. However, MRI is an excellent supplementary method for showing soft tissue changes, and is a promising way of investigating conditions that may give rise to leg oedema and pain.