Gallium and magnetic resonance imaging in the follow-up of mediastinal lymphoma

A residual mediastinal mass after treatment represents a common diagnostic problem in the management of a lymphoma patient, Conventional radiology and computed tomography (CT) do not adequately reflect changes as fibrosis or necrosis. We compared the ability of gallium-67 scintigraphy and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to evaluate the mediastinal disease in the follow up of a lymphoma patient. This study included 247 previously treated patients (200 Hodgkins disease and 47 non-Hodgkin lymphoma) were investigated with gallium scan, MRI (372 examinations) and all other investigations to evaluate the mediastinal region. High values of sensitivity (90%) and specificity (96%) were found for both methods. We want to stress the complementary role of these two tests.