Abstract #0256

Whole-Body MRI, Including Diffusion-Weighted Imaging, for Staging Lymphoma: Comparison to CT in 101 Patients

Thomas Kwee¹, Malou Vermoolen¹, Erik Akkerman², Marie Jos Kersten³, Rob Fijnheer⁴, Inge Ludwig⁵, Frederik Beek¹, Maarten van Leeuwen¹, Marc Bierings⁶, Joseph Zsiros⁷, Henritte Quarles van Ufford¹, Jaap Stoker², Willem Mali¹, Rutger-Jan Nievelstein¹

¹Radiology, UMC Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands; ²Radiology, AMC Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands; ³Hematology, AMC Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands; ⁴Hematology, Meander MC, Amersfoort, Netherlands; ⁵Hematology, UMC Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands; ⁶Pediatric Hematology, UMC Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands; ⁷Pediatric Hematology, AMC Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Whole-body MRI may be an alternative to CT for staging lymphoma. Furthermore, the use of diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) may facilitate staging because of its high lesion-to-background contrast. In this prospective multicenter study including 101 consecutive patients with newly diagnosed lymphoma, staging of newly diagnosed lymphoma using whole-body MRI (without and with DWI) equalled staging using CT in the majority of patients. Disagreements between whole-body MRI and CT were mostly caused by overstaging of the former relative to the latter, with the number of correctly and incorrectly overstaged cases being approximately equal. The potential advantage of DWI is still unproven.