Afectación torácica inicial en el linfoma. Valoración con TC

Objective: To analyze the initial thoracic involvement by CT in a consecutive series of patients with lymphoma. Material and methods: A retrospective analysis was made of thoracic CT studies made at the time of diagnosis of 259 patients with lymphoma. Mediastinal, pulmonary, pleural, pericardial and chest wall involvement was assessed by CT. Results: Of 259 patients (129 men y 130 women), 56 had Hodgkin's disease (HD) and 203 had non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). Forty-two percent (42.5%, 110/259) of the patients had chest involvement on CT: 33 of 56 patients with HD (58.9%) and 77 of 203 patients with NHL (37.9%). All the patients with thoracic HD and 71.4% of patients with thoracic NHL had mediastinal lymph node involvement. Of the patients with thoracic involvement, 12.1% (4/33) of the patients with HD and 23.3% (18/77) of the patients with NHL had pulmonary involvement. Conclusions: Thoracic involvement on CT was more frequent in HD. Mediastinal lymph node involvement was the most common finding, fundamentally in HD. Pulmonary disease always occurred in the presence of mediastinal lymph node involvement in HD, but could occur as an isolated finding in NHL.