OBJECTIVETo evaluate three methods of ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT in detecting bone marrow infiltration in patients with newly diagnosed diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.

METHODSSeventy-seven patients with newly diagnosed diffuse large B-cell lymphoma from July 2012 to June 2014 were retrospectively analyzed. All patients received both ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT scan and bone marrow biopsy in the region of the posterior iliac crests. There were three evaluation methods of ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT to detect bone marrow infiltration, including visual comparison (the FDG uptake in bone marrow of iliac crests was higher than the normal liver tissue), the maximal standardized uptake values (SUV(max)) in bone marrow of iliac crests (more than or equal to 2.5), the ratio of maximal standardized uptake values of iliac crests bone marrow to liver parenchyma intensity (more than 1). All results were compared with the bone marrow biopsy.

RESULTSVisual comparison of ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT could be used to diagnose bone marrow infiltration, with the sensitivity of 100.00%, specificity of 80.00%, positive predictive value of 48.00%, and negative predictive value of 100.00%. When the SUV(max) of iliac crests was used as the diagnostic threshold, the sensitivity was 75.00%, with 92.31% specificity, 64.29% positive predictive value, and 95.24% negative predictive value. The ratio of SUV(max) had the best diagnostic efficiency, with sensitivity of 100.00%, specificity of 90.77%, positive predictive value of 66.67%, and negative predictive value of 100.00%.

CONCLUSIONThe ratio of SUV(max) is a valuable diagnostic method in detecting diffuse large B-cell lymphoatic bone marrow involvement.