Assessment of Benign and Malignant Vertebral Fractures Based on the Measurement of the Fat-Fraction

Andreas Biffar¹, Gerwin Schmidt², Andrea Baur-Melnyk², Maximilian Reiser², Olaf Dietrich¹

Vertebral bone marrow consists of red and yellow marrow, and therefore in contrast to most other tissues of fractions of fat and water at the same order of magnitude. It is known that benign as well as malignant pathologies change this distribution pattern differently. In this study we determined the fat and water fractions in patients with benign and malignant vertebral compression fractures as well as in normal vertebral bone marrow. The analysis of the fat/water fraction shows the potential to be able to differentiate between benign and malignant lesions.