This site is targeted at medical and radiology professionals, contains user contributed content, and material that may be confusing to a lay audience. Use of this site implies acceptance of our Terms of Use.

Ageing blood on MRI

Dr Roberto Schubert and Dr Frank Gaillard et al.

The imaging characteristics of blood on MRI are variable and change with the age of the blood.

In general 5 stages of haematoma evolution are recognised:

  1. hyper acute
    • intracellular oxyhaemoglobin
    • iso intense on both T1 and T2
  2. acute (1 to 2 days)
    • intracellular deoxyhaemoglobin
    • T2 signal intensity drops (T2 shortening)
    • T1 remains intermediate to long
  3. early sub acute (2 to 7 days)
    • intracellular met-haemoglobin
    • T1 signal gradually increases (T1 shortening) to become hyper intense
  4. late sub acute (7 to 14 - 28 days)
    • extracellular met-haemoglobin : over the next few weeks : as cells break down, extracellular met haemoglobin lead to an increase in T2 signal also
  5. chronic ( > 14 - 28 days)
    • periphery
      • intracellular haemosiderin
      • low on both T1 and T2
    • center
      • extracellular hemichromes
      • iso intense T1, hyper intense T2

Updating… Please wait.
Loadinganimation

 Details successfully updated.

Error Unable to process the form. Check for errors and try again.

 Thank you for updating your details.