Non-Hodgkin lymphoma: predicting prognostic grade with MR imaging.
Fifty patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) were examined with magnetic resonance (MR) imaging in order to analyze whether it is possible to distinguish in vivo between the two major prognostic groups, low-grade NHL and high-grade NHL. Most high-grade NHL nodes (15 of 24 [63%]) had an inhomogeneous appearance at MR imaging, in contrast to low-grade NHL nodes, which were homogeneous in almost all patients (18 of 20 [90%]) (P less than .001). A homogeneous image was also found in six patients who had previously received a diagnosis of low-grade NHL; at the time of examination their lesions had transformed into high-grade NHL. Necrosis, detectable in the histopathologic sections, was usually (five of six cases) associated with an inhomogeneous image. However, the images were also inhomogeneous [corrected] in 12 of 44 cases (27%) in which there were no signs of necrosis in the histopathologic sections. Patients with high-grade NHL and a homogeneous signal intensity pattern tended to have a better survival rate than those with an inhomogeneous pattern.
Rehn
S M
SM
Department of Oncology, University of Uppsala, Sweden.
Nyman
R S
RS
Glimelius
B L
BL
Hagberg
H E
HE
Sundström
J C
JC
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008228:Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis