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Abstract #4702

Whole-Body MRI, Including Diffusion-Weighted Imaging, for Staging Malignant Lymphoma: Direct Comparison to CT

Thomas Kwee1, Malou Vermoolen1, Erik Akkerman2, Henritte Quarles van Ufford1, Frederik Beek1, Inge Ludwig3, Marc Bierings4, Rob Fijnheer5, Marie-Jos Kersten6, Joseph Zsiros7, Willem Mali1, Rutger-Jan Nievelstein1

1Department of Radiology, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands; 2Department of Radiology, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, Netherlands; 3Department of Hematology, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands; 4Department of Pediatric Hematology, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands; 5Department of Hematology, Meander Medical Center, Amersfoort, Netherlands; 6Department of Hematology, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, Netherlands; 7Department of Pediatric Hematology, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, Netherlands


This study aimed to assess the equivalence of whole-body MRI, including diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI), to computed tomography (CT) for the initial staging of malignant lymphoma. To that end, 66 consecutive patients with newly diagnosed malignant lymphoma prospectively underwent whole-body MRI (T1-weighted and short inversion time inversion recovery [n=66], and DWI [n=62]) at 1.5T and CT. Whole-body MRI (both with and without DWI) was equal to staging using CT in the majority of patients, while whole-body MRI overstaging occurs more frequently than whole-body MRI understaging (relative to CT).