Tumor infiltration of bone marrow in patients with hematological malignancies： dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging

• Published in: Chinese medical journal Vol. 119; no. 15; pp. 1256 - 1262
• Main Author: ZHANG Lei Catherine Mandel YANG Zhen-yan YANG Qing Richard Nibbs David Westerman Alex Pitman
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Department of Radiology, Tongji Hospital of Tongji University,Shanghai 200065, China%Department of Radiology ,Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre,Melbourne, VIC 3002, Australia%Howard Florey Institute of Physiology and Experimental Medicine,University of Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia%Department of Hematology,Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre,Melbourne, VIC 3002, Australia%Department of Medical Imaging, St Vincent's Hospital, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia 05.08.2006
• Subjects: 磁共振成像; 肿瘤渗入; 血液肿瘤; magnetic resonance imaging; hematological malignancy; dynamic contrast enhancement; bone marrow
• ISSN: 0366-6999; 2542-5641
• DOI: 10.1097/00029330-200608010-00005

Background Conventional magnetic resonance （MR） scanning techniques can identify bone marrow （BM） containing mostly fat cells. But they are not able to differentiate BM tumor infiltration, BM fibrosis and normal red BM. This is particularly problematic in assessment of recurrent or refractory hematological malignancy. This pilot study used dynamic contrast-enhanced MR imaging （DCE-MRI） to evaluate the bone marrow status and to determine whether several calculated parameters derived from the DCE-MRI correlate with histological characteristics of marrow, especially with the tumor fraction （TF）. Methods DCE-MRI scans were performed in 25 patients with proven or known hematological malignancy who were about to undergo bone marrow biopsy of the posterior iliac crest. The location chosen for biopsy was examined with MRI approximately one hour prior to the biopsy. Time-signal intensity curves （TIC） were generated from the region of the iliac crest corresponding to the planned biopsy site. Enhancement parameters were calculated, including peak enhancement ratio （PER）, maximum enhancement slope （S1opemax）, time to peak （TTP） and mean time （MT）. The biopsy specimen was reported synoptically, with relevant reported parameters including cellularity and tumor fraction （TF）. Results PER values were significantly higher for the bone marrow tumor infiltration group than for the normal bone marrow group （P〈0.05）. A significant positive correlation was found between PER and TF as well as S1opemax and TF. A negative correlation was found between TTP and TF. There was no significant difference in the mean TTP and MT values between the BM tumor infiltration group and the normal bone marrow group. Conclusions The presence of diffuse bone marrow infiltration in patients with haematological malignancies could be verified using DCE-MRI.