Three-phase bone imaging in bone marrow edema of the knee.

Transient bone marrow edema has been thought to be related to other similar entities including transient regional osteoporosis and spontaneous osteonecrosis. Although the findings of three-phase bone imaging have been described in osteonecrosis, scant attention has been paid in the nuclear medicine literature to patients with transient bone marrow edema. The authors report the findings of three-phase bone imaging in two patients with knee pain and a transient bone marrow edema pattern as documented by MRI.