Hyperextension vertebral body fractures in diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis: a cause of intravertebral fluidlike collections on MR imaging.

Abstract

We describe an intravertebral fluidlike collection observed on MR images in five of six patients who sustained vertebral body fracture through a segment of the spine ankylosed by diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis. The mechanism of injury, clinical course, conventional radiographs, CT scans, and other MR imaging findings are analyzed. Intravertebral fluidlike collections were associated with hyperextension injury of the spine. Well-delineated borders, anterior widening, and associated posterior-element injury are the main MR imaging characteristics of this trauma-related intravertebral fluidlike collection.