Whole-body magnetic resonance imaging: an essential tool for diagnosis and work up of non-oncological systemic diseases in children

Aim. Whole-body MRI (WBMRI) is a non-irradiating imaging technique, suitable to investigate the extent of multisystemic diseases in pediatric patients. However its real impact on diagnosis and management of non-oncological pediatric diseases remains unclear. We present our experience of pediatric WBMRI in various pathologies. Methods. We retrospectively reviewed medical files of all non- oncologic patients who underwent WBMRI from January 2008 to November 2012. The MRI protocol included T1 weighted and 3D SPACE Inversion Recovery (IR) and fat saturated diffusion weighted (DWI) sequence. We reviewed medical records in order to determine if performing WBMRI added useful information for diagnostic purposes and/or changed clinical management. Results. Forty-two children were included in the study (19 F, 23 M) (median age 4.7 years). Twenty-one children underwent general anesthesia. WBMRI was a useful tool to provide correct diagnosis in chronic recurrent multifocal osteomyelitis (CRMO), and to identify the origin of fever or arthralgia of unknown etiology. WBMRI allowed to determine the extent of disease in juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), chronic granulomatous disorder, enchondromatosis, Langerhans cell histiocytosis, and in the assessment of tumor burden in neurofibromatosis type I. For the battered child syndrome, the influence on management was rather minimal. For each of these pathologies we performed a review of recent literature. Conclusion. WBMRI is easy to perform in children and allows the assessment of systemic diseases or discovery of lesions ignored by clinical examination. WBMRI influenced the decisional process and clinical management of various pathologies in our series.