ABDOMINAL STAGING OF THORACIC HODGKIN DISEASE - CT - LYMPHANGIOGRAPHY- GA-67 SCANNING CORRELATION

A retrospective study was performed to assess whether lymphangiography and gallium-67 scanning were complementary to computed tomography (CT ) in abdominal staging of disease in 94 patients with early-stage thor acic Hodgkin disease. In 51 patients with surgical or follow-up correl ation, the spleen was involved in 16% (n = 8), the spleen and lymph no des in 22% (n = 11), and only lymph nodes in 2% (n = 1). In these 51 p atients, none of the imaging modalities had greater than 50% sensitivi ty for the detection of nodal involvement. The overall accuracy was si milar (71%-82%) for each modality. Analysis of subgroups of patients w ith lymph nodes measuring less than 10 mm 10-19 mm, or 20 mm or greate r at CT revealed that lymphangiography and gallium scanning added litt le to the positive or negative predictive values of CT. The sensitivit y of CT for detection of splenic disease was 11% (two of 19). On the b asis of surgical or follow-up correlation in 51 patients, the authors conclude that lymphangiography and gallium scanning offer minimal or n o complementary benefit.