[Hypersignal of the intervertebral disks in T1-weighted spin-echo MRI sequences].

In magnetic resonance imaging, when there is calcification of the intervertebral disk, signals usually become weaker in all the sequences. Exceptionally, a spontaneous hypersignal is obtained in T1 weighted spin-echo sequences. We report 4 cases of spontaneous hypersignals from disks in T1 weighted spin-echo sequences. In 3 cases, calcifications were visualized with conventional radiology or computed tomography. In 1 case, there was no calcification of the disk, but its density, compared with adjacent disks, was 20 HU greater, suggesting inframacroscopic calcification.