Abstract #0089

Whole-Body Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Including Diffusion-Weighted Imaging, for Diagnosing Bone Marrow Involvement in Malignant Lymphoma

Thomas Kwee¹, Rob Fijnheer², Inge Ludwig³, Henritte Quarles van Ufford¹, Cuno Uiterwaal⁴, Marc Bierings⁵, Taro Takahara¹, Rutger-Jan Nievelstein¹

¹Department of Radiology, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands; ²Department of Hematology, Meander Medical Center, Amersfoort, Netherlands; ³Department of Hematology, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands; ⁴Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands; ⁵Department of Pediatric Hematology, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands

This study aimed to determine the value of whole-body MRI, including diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI), for diagnosing bone marrow involvement in malignant lymphoma using blind bone marrow biopsy (BMB) as reference standard. To that end, 48 consecutive patients with newly diagnosed malignant lymphoma prospectively underwent whole-body MRI (T1-weighted and short inversion time inversion recovery [n=48] and DWI [n=44]) and BMB of the posterior iliac crest. Whole-body MRI (without and with DWI) was negative for bone marrow involvement in a considerable proportion of patients with a positive BMB. Therefore, whole-body MRI cannot replace BMB for bone marrow assessment in malignant lymphoma yet.