MRI versus CT and PET/CT in the preoperative assessment of Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphomas

Background: The purpose of this study is to retrospectively compare CT, MRI, and PET/CT in detecting lymphadenopathies and extra-nodal lesions in lymphoma and in disease staging. (2) Methods: Inclusion criteria were the availability of TB (Total Body) CT and/or PET/CT performed before treatment; MRI performed no later than 2 weeks after TBCT; histological confirmation of lymphoma; clinical-diagnostic follow-up. Using these criteria, we included 64/353 patients with TBCT and MRI performed at our hospital; 20/64 had PET/CT performed in other hospitals. Histology and follow-up were gold standard. (3) Results: The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy in lymph nodes detection was 84.5%, 94.4%, and 91% for CT and 95%, 98.9%, and 95.6% for MRI. High agreement was observed between CT and MRI regarding the number and size of positive lymph nodes and for disease staging. MRI identified eight more extra-nodal lesions than CT. In the subgroup of 20 patients, PET/CT did not show a significant superiority in sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, and staging ability than CT and MRI. (4) Conclusions: Our study demonstrates a mild superiority of MRI over CT in lymphoma staging. Although PET/CT remains the reference standard, MRI demonstrated a similar diagnostic accuracy, with the added value of being radiation-free.