Radiology, Vol 166, 423-430, Copyright © 1988 by Radiological Society of North America
Splenic lymphoma: ferrite-enhanced MR imaging in rats
R Weissleder, DD Stark, EJ Rummeny, CC Compton and JT Ferrucci
Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston 02114.
Ferrite, a new magnetic resonance (MR) contrast agent, was evaluated in the
detection and diagnosis of splenic lymphoma. Before administration of
ferrite, normal rat spleens and spleens with diffuse lymphoma showed
similar in vitro relaxation times and in vivo MR imaging signal-to- noise
ratios (S/N). After the administration of ferrite (50 mumol Fe/kg), the T2
time of lymphomatous spleen was 27.0 msec +/- 2.9 (mean +/- standard
deviation), which was significantly greater than that of normal spleen
(10.7 msec +/- 1.5, P less than .005). The S/N of ferrite- enhanced in vivo
MR images of lymphomatous spleen was 12.4 +/- 0.9, which was significantly
greater than normal (5.7 +/- 0.2, P less than .005). Similar experiments
with animal models of micronodular lymphoma also demonstrated that
ferrite-enhanced MR imaging can distinguish micronodular lymphoma from
normal spleen. Benign splenomegaly, studied with an animal model of
erythroid hyperplasia, showed ferrite-enhanced MR tissue characteristics
that were indistinguishable from those of normal spleen.
