[Osteitis--imaging with magnetic resonance tomography].

Between January 1985 and December 1988 41 patients with clinically suspected osteomyelitis were examined by MRI. All cases were proved either by surgery or by clinical follow-up. Evidence of osteomyelitis on MRI consisted of abnormalities of the bone marrow with decreased signal intensity on T1-weighted images and increased signal intensity on T2-weighted images. Other abnormalities such as degeneration of the intervertebral disc, fatty degeneration of the muscles and thickening of tendon sheaths with fluid were also seen on the same images. The sensitivity of the MRI for the diagnosis of osteomyelitis was 100%, the specificity was 86% and the accuracy 96%. We conclude that MRI is a reliable method in diagnosing osteomyelitis because of its high sensitivity and high specificity.