Objective To evaluate the value of MRI performance for the differential diagnosis of atypical solitary metastatic malignant melanoma from spinal hemangioma.Methods Thirteen patients of atypical solitary metastatic malignant melanoma and 40 patients of spinal solitary hemangioma were retrospectively analyzed.Conventional MR imaging (T1WI,T2WI,and fat suppressed T2WI) and enhanced imaging were performed at 1.5T MRI.The signal intensities (SIs) of spinal lesions were qualitatively evaluated on conventional imaging and were described as hypointense,isointense,or hyperintense.The spinal lesions were qualitatively categorized into minimal enhancement,iso-enhancement,slightly hyper-enhancement,or strong enhancement on contrast-enhanced imaging.The lesions' maximum diameter was also measured and the mean value was obtained.Results The qualitative assessment of SIs on T1WI showed that 76.92％ (10/13),15.38％ (2/13) and 7.69 ％ (1/13) of atypical solitary metastatic malignant melanoma were hypointensity,isointensity and hyperintensity respectively.The qualitative evaluation of SIs on T2WI were found that 61.54％ (8/13) of atypical solitary metastatic malignant melanoma with hypointense,30.77％ (4/13) with isointensity and 7.69％ (1/13) with hyperintensity,respectively.About 92.31％ (12/13) of atypical solitary metastatic malignant melanoma displayed strong enhancement on contrast-enhanced imaging.There were significant differences in SIs on T1WI,T2WI and contrast-enhanced imaging between atypical solitary metastatic malignant melanoma and hemangioma (all P＜0.05).The maximum diameter of atypical solitary metastatic malignant melanoma was significantly higher than that of spinal hemangioma (P＜0.001).Conclusion MR imaging would be practicable for differentiation between atypical solitary metastatic malignant melanoma and hemangioma in spine.