Bone marrow edema in children: chronic nonbacterial osteomyelitis and its mimickers

Bone marrow is a highly cellular tissue undergoing significant developmental and physiologic changes with age. Indeed, with maturation from pediatric to the adult age there is a progressive, centrifugal conversion from red to yellow bone marrow. Histological characteristics of bone marrow are reflected in MR image signal. MR is therefore extremely sensitive in detecting pathological changes which are mostly characterized by increased free water causing high signal intensity on T2. Among the numerous diseases causing bone marrow edema in children chronic nonbacterial osteomyelitis (CNO) certainly has to be mentioned. This idiopathic inflammatory disorder is characterized by nonspecific migrating symptoms like skeletal pain with phases of exacerbations and relapses with alternating acute and chronic MR signs and it is often a diagnosis of exclusion. Hence, with bone marrow edema, various features at imaging should be considered to differentiate malignancies such as osseous lymphoma, osteosarcoma, and Ewing’s sarcoma as well as benign lesions like osteomyelitis, post-traumatic, or post-treatment bone marrow edema. The aim of this review is to recall the main characteristics of CNO and provide an overview of its main mimickers highlighting similarities and differences.