MRI Of Lower Back Shows Degeneration And Abnormal Bone Marrow. What Does It Mean?

Posted on Fri, 8 Nov 2013

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Fri, 8 Nov 2013 Answered on

Fri, 29 Nov 2013 Last reviewed on

Question : I had a mri on my lower back and it shows degeneration and abnormal bone marrow. My doctor has ordered blood lab work. What could that mean? Why blood lab work for this mri. What is he looking for?

Answered by Dr. K. Naga Ravi Prasad (56 minutes later)

Brief Answer: As a part of evaluation for abnormal bone marrow. Detailed Answer: Hi, thanks for writing to XXXXXXX I feel that your treating doctor might have suspected some Hematological disorder as the cause of abnormal bone marrow presentation in your MRI scans. There are number of causes that produce signal alteration on MRI scans and show up as abnormal bone marrow density. The causes include include - Variants of normal - marrow reconversion - tumor (myeloproliferative disorders, metastatic or primary) - radiation - an occult fracture - degenerative change - infection - inflammatory arthritis - osteonecrosis. Generally, Acute leukemias or solitary plasmacytoma's present as abnormal bone marrow densities in the vertebral column. And their presence can be suggested by having a blood lab work which shows abnormal blood cells under microscopy. A bone marrow aspiration & biopsy are needed to establish the correct diagnosis. Hope I have answered your query. Happy to help further Regards

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar