Clinical applications of a computed tomography color "marrow mapping" algorithm to increase conspicuity of nondisplaced trabecular fractures.

<bold>Purpose: </bold>To explore clinical applications of a novel conventional computed tomography (CT) color post-processing algorithm to increase conspicuity of nondisplaced trabecular fractures.<bold>Materials and Methods: </bold>The algorithm was created in Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Extendscript, utilizing DICOM images from conventional CT as source images. A total of six representative cases were selected and processed. No statistical analyses were performed.<bold>Results: </bold>A total of six cases are demonstrated, five with MRI correlation demonstrating corresponding fractures and bone marrow edema, including a case of sacral insufficiency fracture, two cases of vertebral body fracture, two cases of nondisplaced hip fracture, and a knee bone marrow edema lesion (without MRI correlate). All cases were processed successfully without error.<bold>Conclusions: </bold>A conventional CT color post-processing algorithm may be clinically useful in increasing conspicuity of nondisplaced fractures and bone marrow edema. A potential pitfall is the presence of subchondral or marrow sclerosis, which may mimic edema. Future prospective studies will be necessary to evaluate diagnostic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]