Presentation
Investigated for low back pain
Patient Data
The lumbar canal and conus appear normal, with the tip of the conus located at the L1 level. Immediately below the conus, in the midline is a longitudinal streak of high T1 and high T2 signal tissue with attenuates following fat saturation and demonstrates no enhancement.
Fat intensity tissue (yellow arrows) is seen along the proximal filum terminale, which is confirmed to be fat by noting complete attenuation of signal on fat saturated sequences. Adequate fat saturation can be confirmed by looking at subcutaneous fat (red circle). The conus (C) appears normal and terminates at the upper border of L1 (blue arrow).
Case Discussion
This case demonstrates typical appearances of a fatty filum terminale and relatively frequent and usually incidental finding.