Value of MRI in qualitative and quantitative diagnosis of bone marrow infiltration in lymphoma

Abstract

Objective To evaluate the value of MRI in qualitative and quantitative diagnosis of bone marrow involvement in patients with lymphoma. Methods 28 diagnosed lymphoma with bone marrow infiltration and 31 healthy spines as controls were included.MRI performance and the signal intensity ratio on T1WI (SIR1) of the spine bone marrow and cerebrospinal fluid were analyzed and statistical analyses were performed.Results Qualitative diagnosis among these patients,was shown than MRI results indicated that 27 cases had abnormal signal. The sensitivity of MRI was 96.4 ％. There were four main patterns of marrow infiltration in MRI,containing nodular pattern 21.4 ％ (6/28),scattered pattern 53.6 ％ (15/28),mottled pattern 14.3 ％ (4/28) and uniform pattern 7.1％ (2/28) respectively.By quantitative diagnosis the SIR1 of study group (1.251±0.253) was apparently lower than that in the control group (2.625±0.434) with statistical significance (t =15.022,P ＜ 0.001).The results of multiple comparisons showed that the SIR1 of mild degree (1.390±0.172),moderate degree (0.982±0.790) and severe degree (0.908±0.122) patients with lymphoma compared with the normal controls had significant differences (all P =0.000),and difference between mild and moderate degree had statistical significance (LSD,P =0.012),so did the difference between mild and severe degree (LSD,P =0.025).However,no significant difference could be seen between moderate and severe degree (LSD, P =0.757). Positive linear correlation was existed between the persentages of SIR1 and tumor cells in bone marrow (r =-0.765, P ＜ 0.001). Conclusion As a noninvasive and direct-viewing technique, MRI presents a global view of bone marrow with high sensitivity in detecting bone marrow involvement in lymphoma. To a certain extent, it could be possible to estimate the infiltration degree and evaluation of the tumor burden in bone marrow by quantitative measurement of MRI. Key words: Magnetic resonance imaging; Lymphoma; Bone marrow infiltration; Diagnosis