Aging blood on MRI (mnemonic)

Aging blood on MRI is dependent on the varying MRI signal characteristics of hemorrhagic collections with time and can be very useful in correlating the imaging findings with the clinical picture. However, as it can be complicated to recall the MRI features of aging blood through the five stages of hematoma evolution several mnemonics have been devised:

• I Be, IdDy, BiDy, BaBy, Doo Doo
• I Bleed, I Die, Bleed Die, Bleed Bleed, Die Die
• I BID BaD BaBy DO
• I Bleed, I Die, But Department Boss Bleeds, Department Dies

Mnemonics

The first two mnemonics use the first letters of the words and word pairs to denote the signal characteristics of blood at each stage as isointense (I), bright (B), or dark (D). The first bold letter in each pair denotes the typical T1 signal finding, while the second denotes the T2 signal change.

For those that find it difficult to memorize the mnemonic above an alternative is found below which uses full word pairs.​

• I Bleed 
  • T1 Isointense
  • T2 Bright
  • hyperacute < 1 day
• I Die
  • T1 Isointense
  • T2 Dark
  • acute 1 to 3 days
• Bleed Die 
  • ​T1 Bright
  • T2 Dark
  • early subacute 2 to 7 days
• Bleed Bleed 
  • T1 Bright
  • T2 Bright
  • late subacute 7 to 14-28 days
• Die Die
  • ​​T1 Dark
  • T2 Dark
  • chronic >14 to 28 days

This mnemonic uses bold capital letters of the sentence in pairs of two to denote the signal characteristics of blood at each stage as isointense (I), bright (B), or dark (D). The first bold letter in each pair denotes the typical T1 signal finding while the second denotes the T2 signal change.

• I B
  • T1 Isointense
  • T2 Bright
  • hyperacute < 1 day
• I D 
  • T1 Isointense
  • T2 Dark
  • acute 1 to 3 days
• BaD 
  • ​T1 Bright
  • T2 Dark
  • early subacute 2 to 7 days
• BaBy
  • T1 Bright
  • T2 Bright
  • late subacute 7 to 14-28 days
• DO
  • ​​T1 Dark
  • T2 dark (O represents the hemosiderin ring)
  • chronic >14 to 28 days

See also

• aging blood on MRI