Diffuse Infiltrative Splenic Lymphoma: Diagnostic Efficacy of Arterial-Phase CT

To evaluate the diagnostic performance of obliteration of normal heterogeneous enhancement of the spleen (ONHES) on arterial phase (AP) computed tomography (CT) images in diffuse infiltrative splenic lymphoma (DISL).

One hundred and thirty-six patients with lymphoma who had undergone two-phase (arterial and portal venous) abdominal CT were included in this study. We retrospectively evaluated the diagnostic performance of ONHES on AP CT in diagnosing DISL. Two observers evaluated ONHES on AP CT using the 5-point confidence level and assessed the presence or absence of subjective splenomegaly on axial CT images. Another two observers measured the splenic index as proposed by objective CT criteria. Statistical analysis included interobserver agreement and diagnostic performance of CT findings.

Eleven of the 136 patients with lymphoma had DISL. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of ONHES (0.948 for observer 1 and 0.922 for observer 2) was superior to that of the splenic index (0.872 for observer 3 and 0.877 for observer 4), but the difference was not statistically significant (p > 0.05). The diagnostic performance of ONHES in conjunction with subjective splenomegaly showed higher diagnostic performance, as compared with subjective splenomegaly alone (accuracy: 100% and 85.3% for observer 1, 98.5% and 87.5% for observer 2; positive predictive value: 100% and 35.5% for observer 1, 90.9% and 39.3% for observer 2, respectively).

Obliteration of normal heterogeneous enhancement of the spleen in conjunction with subjective splenomegaly can improve the diagnostic performance for DISL. Our results suggest that ONHES on AP CT images could be useful as an adjunctive diagnostic indicator of DISL in patients with lymphoma.