Lymphoma of the skeleton: scintigraphic evaluation

We retrospectively reviewed the 99mTc-diphosphonate scans of 980 patients with Hodgkin or non-Hodgkin lymphoma to define the typical appearance and distribution of skeletal lesions. The results were compared with the presence of skeletal symptoms and the findings on 67Ga-citrate scintigraphy, when available. Forty (4%) of the 980 patients had 77 scintigrams showing osseous involvement; there was an average of 3.5 lesions per study. Compared with patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, patients with Hodgkin disease had significantly fewer axial lesions (44% vs 82%, p less than .000001, two-tailed test) and more frequent involvement of the extremities. Subtle lesions were common. Of the lesions detected by scintigraphy, significantly more were detected by 99mTc-diphosphonate imaging (95%) than were detected by 67Ga-citrate (44%) (p less than .00001, two-tailed test), and most of these were far less apparent on the 67Ga-citrate study. Skeletal pain was an insensitive but specific indicator of skeletal disease. These results show that skeletal scintigraphy in patients with lymphoma typically reveals multiple subtle and asymptomatic lesions with frequent extremity involvement. Diffusely increased calvarial activity is commonly seen and often persists in proved remission. Increased juxtaarticular activity is specific for malignant skeletal involvement.