[Paget's disease of bone: MR characteristics at 1.5 T]

Thirteen patients with confirmed Paget's disease were examined using a 1.5 T MR tomograph. Five patients had polyostotic and eight patients monostotic forms of the disease. The results of these MR examinations were compared with the results of MR examinations performed on patients with osseous changes of different origin (metastases of breast cancer and prostate cancer, osteomyelitis, bone marrow infiltration due to acute lymphatic leukaemia and plasmocytoma). MR tomography permits evaluation of bone marrow space, osseous changes, and the surrounding soft tissue. Areas of sclerotic bone, thickened corticalis and bands of connective tissue in the marrow space were recognised as structures with no signal in T1- and T2-weighted images. The red and yellow marrows showed normal signal intensity patterns, although they were often reduced in size.