EARLY CHRONIC LYMPHOCYTIC-LEUKEMIA - PROGNOSTIC VALUE OF QUANTITATIVEBONE-MARROW MR-IMAGING FINDINGS AND CORRELATION WITH HEMATOLOGIC VARIABLES

PURPOSE: To determine the frequency of abnormal findings from quantita tive bone marrow magnetic resonance (MR) imaging in patients with earl y-stage chronic lymphocytic leukemia, to correlate these findings with clinical parameters, and to compare spontaneous outcome in patients w ith normal or abnormal MR imaging findings. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In 21 patients with Binet stage A (Rai stage 0-I) disease, bulk T1 values of the vertebral bone marrow were determined and correlated with init ial clinical, laboratory, histopathologic, and cytogenetic findings an d with treatment-free survival. RESULTS: Bulk T1 values were normal (< 600 msec) in 14 patients and prolonged in seven. Patients with increa sed T1 had significantly higher blood (P = .017) and bone marrow (P = .015) lymphocytosis. None of the 14 patients with normal T1 values req uired specific therapy after a median follow-up of 13 months. Of the s even patients with abnormal T1 values, five required treatment after p rogression to Binet stage B or C disease at a median of 10 months. CON CLUSION: In patients with abnormal quantitative MR imaging findings, t reatment-free survival appears to be significantly shorter (P < .001) than in patients with normal MR imaging findings.