title: [Whole Body Magnetic Resonance and CT/PET in patients affected by multiple myeloma during staging before treatment].
abstract: The diagnostic imaging plays a pivotal role in the staging of multiple myeloma (MM). Traditional imaging techniques allow a precise disease extension before treatment, but some drawbacks have been demonstrated after treatment. WBMRI and CT/PET represent alterative procedures during staging, but few comparative data are available to date. Aim of our study was to estimate the diagnostic accuracy of WB-MRI and CT/PET in 28 consecutive patients affected by MM before therapy. CT/PET was positive in 22/28 patients, whereas WB-MRI correctly identified 100% of patients. In this setting of patients WB MRI have demonstrated to be superior respect to CT/PET in term of diagnostic accuracy, especially when a diffuse disease is detected with a bone marrow aspiration with more than 40% of plasma cells. WBMRI shows a diagnostic accuracy higher than FDG-CT/PET in staging especially when diffuse. However a whole body coverage is crucial to properly manage MM patients irrespective of which technique is used.
authors.affiliation: Universita Magna Graecia, Catanzaro. milafal@libero.it
authors.forename: Carmela
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Falcone
authors.forename: Stefania
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cipullo
authors.forename: Pasqualina
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sannino
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Restuccia
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D064847:Multimodal Imaging; D009101:Multiple Myeloma / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D011446:Prospective Studies; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D051598:Whole Body Imaging