BoneMRI now available for lower back

For the first time the involvement of both the vertebra and the soft tissue of the spine, in patients with chronic back pain, can be examined from a single medical imaging exam.

Utrecht, September 3rd, 2021 – MRIguidance has extended its CE certificate of BoneMRI for usage in the lower back. BoneMRI can now be used for patients with chronic lower back pain, a condition often caused by nerve compression. The radiation free solution to visualise the potential involvement of both the bone and the soft tissues on this compression will aid doctors with diagnosis and treatment planning.

Lower back pain
There are no conditions worldwide that cause more disability than lower back pain. It is estimated that 50-80% of the adult population in Europe and the U.S. will get lower back pain at some stage in their lives. When the back pain becomes chronic, an MRI exam often is used to examine the cause and plan the treatment. Next to nerve tissue, intervertebral discs and muscles, BoneMRI adds crucial information on the osseous structures to an MRI exam, providing a complete overview of anatomically complex spine.

Clinical study
BoneMRI for the lumbar spine has been clinically validated in a patient study with the University Hospital Ghent, Belgium. The results will soon be published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. Now this application of BoneMRI has become available for use in Europe, University Hospital Ghent and other hospitals in Belgium will be the first to use it in patients in their clinical workflow.

Total spine
“Clinical validation of the BoneMRI technology in the spine and obtaining the CE certificate is an important step for MRIguidance.”, says Peter Seevinck, CSO of MRIguidance. “This will help us in our goal to aid patients worldwide with our new imaging solution. This is a major achievement on our way to make BoneMRI available for the total spine, first in adults and then also for radiation free imaging of the spine of children.” Besides Europe, MRIguidance is also working on regulatory market approval in the U.S.

Utrecht, February 2026 – MRIguidance has released a new update to BoneMRI, making the solution easier to use across the hospital workflow while expanding compatibility with scanners, systems, and IT environments.

A key feature of the release is new stitching functionality, which allows clinicians to generate combined anatomical regions of e.g. the cervical, thoracic and lumbar spine, into a single, continuous image, providing total spine views. This enables assessment of pathology across multiple spinal regions without switching between image series, which might improve clinical confidence by visualizing anatomical relationships in one comprehensive view, and reduce interpretation time by eliminating manual cross-referencing between sub-regions.

The update also introduces extended compatibility across imaging platforms and infrastructure. BoneMRI now supports pelvic region imaging across the full range of GE, Siemens, and Philips MRI scanners at both 1.5T and 3T. In addition, the software expands support for Enhanced DICOM processing and is now compatible with Windows Server 2025 OS via the MRIguidance Gateway.

These improvements enhance interoperability with MRI scanners and DICOM inputs, simplify coordination with hospital IT departments, and broaden anatomical and vendor coverage to support smoother clinical adoption.

The release also includes additional support and security enhancements.

The latest BoneMRI update benefits radiologists, MR technologists, IT teams, and surgeons, further strengthening BoneMRI’s role in efficient, radiation-free bone imaging across clinical workflows.

Recent news