Sonographic characteristic of hepatic lymphoma / 中华医学超声杂志（电子版）

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the sonographic characteristic of hepatic lymphoma. Methods Fifteen patients with pathological proven hepatic lymphomas (4 primary and 11 secondary hepatic lymphomas) were included in this retrospective study. All the 15 patients underwent conventional B-mode ultrasound examinations. Two patients (one with primary lymphoma and another with secondary lymphoma) underwent contrast enhanced ultrasonography (CEUS). Results In the conventional ultrasonography, hepatic masses were detected in 9 patients (4 primary and 5 secondary lymphomas). No hepatic mass was detected in the remaining 6 patients with pathological proven secondary lymphomas. For the 4 patients with detectable primary masses, 2 had a single mass and 2 had multiple masses. All primary hepatic lymphomas were hypoechoic. For the 5 patients with detectable secondary masses, 2 had a single mass and 3 had multiple masses. The hypoechoic lymphomas were found in 3 patients, while hyperechoic and isoechoic lymphomas were found in the other 2 patients. In the 4 patients with primary hepatic lymphomas, 3 had hepatomegaly, while none of the 4 patients had splenomegaly. In the 5 patients with detectable secondary masses, hepatomegaly was found in 3 patients in whom 2 had splenomegaly and 1 had a plate-shaped hypoechoic region within spleen. For the 6 patients without detectable secondary masses, splenomegaly was found in all 6 patients and hepatomegaly was found in 4 patients. In the spleen of one patient, a plate-shaped hypoechoic region was detected in the B-mode ultrasonography. In the CEUS, the primary lymphoma presented a thick ring region with slight enhancement peripheral to the mass during the hepatic artery phase;while the secondary lymphoma presented the uneven enhancement pattern with a small plate-shaped region unenhanced in its center during the hepatic artery phase. Conclusions In ultrasonography, the patients with hepatic lymphomas commonly present a single or multiple hypoechoic well-deifned hepatic masses, poor blood lfow and uneven enhancement peripheral to the mass during the hepatic artery phase of CEUS. Other sonographic characteristic include hepatomegaly and splenomegaly. No mass is detected in ultrasonography can not exclude the diagnosis of hepatic lymphoma.