Ultrasound involvement of the spleen in non-Hodgkin's lymphomas

Abstract

Between 1980 and 1993, 680 patients with malignant lymphoma were referred for abdominal sonography as a part of staging. In 67 (9.8%) individuals with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) sonography showed different degrees of lesions of the spleen. Splenic involvement was confirmed by histological examination (n = 5) and by clinical (n = 67) and sonographic follow-up examination (n = 56). 38 patients had low-grade (lg NHL), and 29 had high-grade non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (hg NHL). Four different sonographic patterns were found: diffuse infiltration (n = 20; 29.9%), small nodular lesions (n = 25; 37.3%), large nodular lesions (n = 20; 29.9%), and "bulky" disease (n = 2; 2.9%). All hg NHL exhibited focal lesions, which were large nodular in 15 out of 29 patients. In lg NHL small nodular and diffuse destruction of the splenic tissue texture were seen in 35 out of 38. Different texture patterns of the spleen can be found in patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and splenic involvement with different lymphomas tending to exhibit different echomorphological infiltration patterns.