IRON DEPOSITION IN CRANIAL BONE-MARROW WITH SICKLE-CELL DISEASE - MR ASSESSMENT USING A FAT-SUPPRESSION TECHNIQUE

Thirteen patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) undergoing transfusio n therapy and 8 control patients were examined by magnetic resonance i maging to discriminate bone marrow change due to iron deposition from hematologic marrow hyperplasia. Using T1-weighted spin echo images, on ly two subjects showed extremely low signal intensity marrow compatibl e with iron deposition. However, using T2-weighted fast spin echo imag es with fat suppression, cranial bone marrow in SCD patients with tran sfusion therapy showed considerably lower signal than that of controls . The main cause of marrow signal decrease in SCD patients with transf usion therapy was considered to be iron deposition due to repeated tra nsfusion therapy rather than red marrow hyperplasia.