Abstract
The purpose of this study was to identify the manifestations of the chemical shift misregistration effect in spinal magnetic resonance (MR) images. With the use of a 0.5-T superconducting MR scanner, axial images of a normal lumbar spine were obtained with T1-weighted spin echo sequences in which the frequency- and phase-encoding gradients were interchanged. A low intensity meniscus (band) was demonstrated around the thecal sac in the direction of the lower frequency-encoding gradient. Awareness of this phenomenon is crucial to the correct interpretation of spinal MR images, especially in cases of lipoma or other fatty tumors.
