ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the aggressive signs of benign spinal lesions appearing on medical imaging and their impact on diagnosis.Methods 139 cases of benign spinal lesions with aggressive signs confirmed by pathology of needle aspiration or surgery were reviewed,including 18 cases of osteoblastoma(OB),12 cases of aneurysmal bone cyst(ABC),14 cases of osteoenchondroma (OC),19 cases of Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH),15 cases of hemangioma (HA),34 cases of tuberculous spondylitis (TS),and 27 cases of pyogenic spondylitis (PS).All patients underwent radiography,119 cases CT plain scan,75 cases MRI scan,and 57 cases performed all the three imaging modalities.The aggressive signs,including bulging of posterior margin of the vertebral body,pathological compression fractures,ill-defined boundary,abnormal soft tissue mass,bone marrow and soft tissue edema were showed.The benign and malignant misdiagnosis rate,the consistent rate of diagnosis with pathology were statistically analysed.Results Bulging of posterior margin of the vertebral body were found in 2 cases of OB,1 case ABC,3 cases LCH,1 case OC,6 cases HA,6 cases TS,2 cases PS.Pathological compression fracture were found in 6 cases of OB,10 cases ABC,16 cases LCH,4 cases HA,21 cases TS,16 cases PS.Ill defined boundary were found in 3 cases of OB,8 cases HA,34 cases TS,27 cases PS.The abnormal soft tissue around spine were found in 6 cases of OB,2 cases ABC,15 cases LCH,10 cases TS,15 cases PS.Bone marrow and soft tissue edema were found in 5 cases of OB,4 cases ABC,10 cases LCH,4 cases HA,30 cases TS,27 cases PS.For benign and malignant misdiagnosis rate,MRI was better than CT(P＜ 0.05).For accuracy of the consistent rate with pathology,CT was better than MRI(P＜0.05).The integrated application of the three imaging methods could significantly improve diagnostic accuracy (P＜0.05).Conclusion The imaging features benign spinal lesions are various,which may be associated with aggressive signs.A comprehensive method combined with three kinds of imaging methods,is a simple and feasible way to avoid the misdiagnosis.