DOl: 10.3113/FAI.2010.0949 Painful Bone Marrow Edema Syndrome of the Foot and Ankle

Background: Bone marrow edema syndrome (BMES) of the foot and ankle is an uncommon and often undiagnosed disorder that, to our knowledge, has not previously been reported in the orthopaedic literature. The current study reviews a consec utive series of patients who were seen with this musculoskeletal disorder in order to highlight the clinical presentation and diag nostic imaging characteristics specific to this disorder. Mate-rials and Methods: A retrospective chart study was performed involving 601 patients who underwent magnetic resonance (MR) imaging of the foot and ankle at our institution from April 2005 to April 2006. We identified 14 patients whose MR imaging demonstrated findings consistent with BMES. Results: All 14 patients demonstrated characteristic diffuse, irregularly increased signal intensity on T2-weighted MR imaging and vari able areas of decreased signal intensity on Tl-weighted M