What Does MRI Of Thoracic Stating Mildly Heterogenous Marrow Signal Due To Yellow Conversion Mean?

Posted on Mon, 2 Dec 2013

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

Mon, 2 Dec 2013 Answered on

Wed, 18 Dec 2013 Last reviewed on

Question : My mri of my thoracic stated mildly heterogenous marrow signal,may be due to yellow conversion. Should I be worried

Answered by Dr. Indu Kumar (4 hours later)

Brief Answer: Your MRI is rightly reported & it is normalfinding Detailed Answer: Hello XXXXX Thanks for writing to XXXXXXX The bone marrow in humans is predominantly red in infancy,which is mostly made of red cells and with age it gets replaced by fat components and is transformed to yellow marrow, which has all the same constituents as red, except that fat cells make up the vast majority and it causes poor vascularity. Distribution varies with age and from one individual to another. In MRI scan the marrow shows mild heterogeneous signals when yellow component starts appearing in greater proportion. At your age of 48 years this is perfectly normal in appearance. Please do not worry about this and your MRI scan is rightly reported. Get well soon. Hope i have answered your query. Further queries are most welcome. Take Care Dr.Indu XXXXXXX

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