title: Clinical and prognostic significance of femoral marrow magnetic resonance imaging in patients with malignant lymphoma.
abstract: We evaluated 56 consecutive patients with newly diagnosed lymphoma including 48 with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) and 8 with Hodgkin's disease to determine the clinical and prognostic significance of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the femoral marrow. MR images of the femoral marrow were obtained by the T1-weighted spin echo method and the short TI inversion recovery technique. Abnormal "positive" images were seen in 29 of the 56 patients (52%). All 17 patients with positive biopsy results showed abnormal images on their femoral marrow MRI. Three "positive" MRI patterns-scattered (72%), uniform (21%), and nodular (7%)-were observed. The overall survival of the patients with a positive MRI pattern was significantly poorer than that of patients with a normal pattern (P = .0129). Survival did not differ significantly according to MRI pattern. The 3-year survival rate in the patients with a normal MRI pattern was 89.9% and in the patients with a positive MRI pattern, it was 41.0%. This difference was statistically significant (P = .0279) when we evaluated only the patients with NHL. Patients with positive MRI patterns, but a normal bone marrow histology, showed a significantly shorter survival than those with a normal MRI pattern (P = .016). These results indicate that abnormal MR images of the femoral marrow are associated with a significantly poorer survival in patients with malignant lymphoma, regardless of histologic findings in the marrow.
authors.affiliation: Division of Hematology, Omiya Medical Center, Jichi Medical School, Saitama, Japan.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tsunoda
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Takagi
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Miura
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001853:Bone Marrow / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D005269:Femur / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D008223:Lymphoma / Q000145:classification / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016019:Survival Analysis