[Surface coils in magnetic resonance diagnosis of spinal space-occupying lesions]

190 patients underwent MRI of the spine. In 119 cases pathological changes were detected. 82 of these were located in the extradural compartment, 14 were found in the intradural-extramedullary space and 23 were situated inside the myelon. Routinely, spin echo sequence were performed in sagittal direction (T1-weighted images as well as T2-weighted images), in about 20% combined with transverse sections. All patients were investigated using surface coils of 20 X 40 or 15 X 45 cm; Using a field of view of 350 mm, spatial resolution was 1.3 mm per pixel. The quality of images obtained in this way was clearly superior to techniques using the body coil.