Pathophysiology and MRI Findings of Infectious Spondylitis and the Differential Diagnosis

On MRI, abnormal signals of the intervertebral disc, destruction of the upper and lower vertebral body endplate around the disc, and bone marrow edema around the endplate are considered typical findings of infectious spondylitis. These findings can also appear in various non-infectious spinal dis...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:
Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Sunjin Ryu, Yeo Ju Kim, Seunghun Lee, Jeongah Ryu, Sunghoon Park, Jung Ui Hong
Formato: article
Lenguaje:EN
KO
Publicado: The Korean Society of Radiology 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://doaj.org/article/96ca3e8748b94f48955ecbd42b76d6f7
Etiquetas: Agregar Etiqueta
Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!
Descripción
Sumario:On MRI, abnormal signals of the intervertebral disc, destruction of the upper and lower vertebral body endplate around the disc, and bone marrow edema around the endplate are considered typical findings of infectious spondylitis. These findings can also appear in various non-infectious spinal diseases, such as degenerative changes, acute Schmorl’s node, spondyloarthropathy, synovitis, acne, pustulosis, hyperostosis, and osteitis (SAPHO), chronic recurrent multifocal osteomyelitis, and calcium pyrophosphate dihydrate crystal deposition disease. The imaging findings of infectious spondylitis that can be differentiated from these non-infectious spinal diseases on MRI are high signal intensity and abscess of the disc space, an abscess in the paraspinal soft tissue, and the loss of the linear low signal intensity on T1-weighted images of the bony endplate. However, these differentiation points do not always apply since there are many similarities in the imaging findings of infectious and non-infectious diseases. Therefore, for an accurate diagnosis, it is important to know the imaging characteristics related to the pathophysiology of not only infectious spondylitis but also non-infectious spinal diseases, which requires differentiation from infection.