[Ultrasound assessment of extranodal abdominal lymphoma involvement: an overview]

The abdominal sonograms of 680 patients with malignant non-Hodgkin's lymphomas (NHL) and Hodgkin's lymphomas (HD) were reviewed. An involvement in the spleen (n = 101), liver (n = 47), gastrointestinal tract (n = 70), kidney (n = 17), and various other organs (n = 19) could be demonstrated on ultrasound. Lesions were confirmed by histology (n = 117), sonographic (n = 141) and clinical follow-up. The different sonographic features of lymphomatous infiltrates in different extranodal sites are described, and possible correlations between lymphoma subtypes and sonographic texture characteristics are discussed. In cases with splenic and liver involvement, lymphoma subtypes had different patterns. A predominantly diffuse or small nodular infiltration was found in NHL of low-grade malignancy, and large nodular lesions were found to be more typical in high-grade NHL. The ultrasound findings basically do not allow a specific diagnosis and even may resemble a variety of malignant and non-malignant diseases other than lymphomas.