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

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