RECENT ADVANCES IN MAGNETIC-RESONANCE-IMAGING OF MUSCULOSKELETAL TUMORS

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has become the method of choice, where available, for the evaluation of musculoskeletal neoplasms. Recently, there has been interest and development in a number of areas in this field: (a) gradient-echo (fast-scan) sequences, which may often be substituted for more time-consuming T2-weighted sequences, are useful as localizing sequences and play an important role in intravenous contrast-enhanced scanning; (b) magnetic resonance contrast agents (e.g., gadolinium) improve delineation of tumours on static imaging and may help in estimating tumour aggressiveness with dynamic imaging; (c) STIR (short inversion time inversion recovery) increases lesion conspicuity; (d) spectroscopy, still an investigational area, may help in evaluating tumour response to chemotherapy and radiotherapy.