MRI is probably sufficiently sensitive to rule out bone marrow involvement in patients with malignant lymphoma


MRI may be used to rule out bone marrow involvement in patients with malignant lymphoma, provided that its sensitivity (i.e. the proportion of patients with bone marrow involvement that MRI is able to detect) is sufficiently high. Furthermore, in patients in whom bone marrow infiltration is suspected on MRI, MRI can be used to guide bone marrow biopsy, thereby reducing the number of sampling errors. The results of our systematic review indicate that MRI is probably sufficiently sensitive to rule out bone marrow involvement in patients with malignant lymphoma. However, a well-designed study is needed to confirm current results

 

 

Bibliographic Reference:

Kwee TC et al.: "Magnetic resonance imaging for the detection of bone marrow involvement in malignant lymphoma", Br J Haematol. 2008 Apr;141(1):60-8

 

Thomas Kwee

University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands