Newly diagnosed patients underwent FDG PET/CT for whole-body staging. All the PET/CT images were analyzed by a qualified nuclear medicine physician. The bone marrow FDG uptake was classified as negative, focal, multifocal and diffuse marrow uptake. A PET/CT guided metabolic bone marrow sampling from the FDG avid marrow-based lesion was done. However, patients with diffuse FDG avidity or no uptake in the marrow differed for PET-guided biopsy. All the patients underwent routine trephine bone marrow sampling. Bone marrow infiltration (final diagnosis) was established based on trephine bone marrow sampling and FDG PET/CT targeted bone marrow biopsy results in the present study. The results of both the biopsies were correlated with the final diagnosis.
Newly diagnosed lymphoma patients were recruited for FDG PET/CT and PET/CT guided bone marrow biopsy. All the patients also underwent routine bone marrow sampling from the posterior superior iliac spine.