The Diagnostic Value of MRI in Assessment of Pediatric Lymphoma

Abstract

Lymphoma is considered as the third most common malignant neoplasm in Childhood and adolescence . imaging plays a vital role in bothstaging and assessment of therapeutic response. FDG PET/CT or enhanced CT are the routine investigations done in lymphoma, yet the need for repeated examination implies marked increase in the radiation dose. In addition to that, children are much prone to the radiation hazard than adults due to the cumulative nature of the stochastic effect of radiation. Every Sievert will lead to five percent increase in the risk of another neoplastic attack and their long life expectancy compared to adults made them more vulnerable. New techniques like whole body STIR imaging and DWIBS are recently being considered in children imaging as there is no radiation risk compared to other methods. The review of this context consists of chapters about lymphoma in pediatrics, whole body STIR, physics role of DWIBS in lymphoma assessment. This study was performed upon 19 patients underwent whole body STIR/DWIBS with CT used as reference standard, and shows that whole body MR may play an important role in initial staging and evaluation of pediatric lymphoma . In our preliminary study we can suggest that whole body STIR/DWIBS can replace CT in staging and post therapeutic assessment of children with lymphoma, however more studies needed for confirmation of this point.