MR imaging of osteomyelitis

Seventeen MR studies were performed on 16 children with acute, chronic, or healed osteomyelitis. Abnormality was detected in the soft tissues and bone marrow in all patients with acute or chronic osteomyelitis. Two of three patients with heated osteomyelitis had normal soft tissues and bone marrow. There was overlap in the appearance of acute and chronic osteomyelitis. The patients with acute osteomyelitis, however, tended to have more extensive soft-tissue abnormality, to have more poorly defined margins to the soft-tissue abnormality, and more poorly defined interfaces between normal and diseased bone marrow. The signal characteristics of diseases soft tissue and marrow were compatible with prolongation of T1 and T2 relaxation times as compared with normal muscles