title: Bone-marrow MR imaging before and after autologous marrow transplantation in lymphoma patients without known bone-marrow involvement.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To study lumbar bone marrow by means of MR imaging before and after bone-marrow transplantation in lymphoma patients. Particular emphasis was paid to heterogeneity and to focal manifestations, i.e. appearances that could simulate tumor.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty-two patients who were disease-free for a minimum of 30 months after transplantation were studied in 107 MR examinations. Two radiologists visually evaluated coronal T1-weighted and short inversion time inversion-recovery (STIR) images.
  
  
  RESULTS
  T1-weighted images demonstrated a more heterogeneous marrow after transplantation than before it. Sharply defined focal low signal intensity areas appeared on this sequence in 5 (23%) of the 22 patients at between 21 and 60 weeks after transplantation. The mean age of these 5 patients was 48.4 years (range 42-54 years). The difference in age between these 5 patients and the remaining 17 patients, who had a mean age of 33.4 years (range 14-51 years), was statistically significant (p < 0.01, Student's t-test, 2-sided test).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Sharply defined focal low signal intensity areas may be seen on T1-weighted images of bone marrow in patients who are in complete remission after transplantation, particularly in those aged over 40-45 years.
authors.affiliation: Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Norwegian Radium Hospital, Montebello, Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: H H
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Lien
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Blomlie
authors.forename: A K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Blystad
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Holte
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Langholm
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kvaløy
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001853:Bone Marrow / Q000473:pathology*; D016026:Bone Marrow Transplantation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008159:Lumbar Vertebrae / Q000473:pathology; D008223:Lymphoma / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012074:Remission Induction; D019172:Transplantation Conditioning / Q000379:methods; D014182:Transplantation, Autologous