Bone marrow uptake of (18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose in Hodgkin lymphoma without bone involvement: comparison between patients with and without B symptoms

OBJECTIVE: To compare the degree of benign bone marrow uptake of (18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose ((18)F-FDG) between Hodgkin lymphoma patients with and without B symptoms. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We analyzed the medical charts of 74 Hodgkin lymphoma patients who underwent (18)F-FDG positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) prior to the initiation of therapy between October 2010 and September 2013. In all of the patients, the bone marrow biopsy was negative and the (18)F-FDG PET/CT images did not suggest bone marrow involvement. Of the 74 patients evaluated, 54 presented inflammatory (B) symptoms and 20 did not. Regions of interest (ROIs) were drawn on the sternum, the proximal thirds of the humeri, the proximal thirds of the femora, and both iliac wings (totaling seven ROIs per patient). To compare the patients with and without B symptoms, in terms of standardized uptake values (SUVs) for the seven ROIs, we used the Mann-Whitney U test. RESULTS: For six of the ROIs, the SUVs were higher in the patients with B symptoms than in those without, and the difference was statistically significant (p < 0.05). There was also a tendency toward a statistically significant difference between the two groups in terms of the SUV for the right iliac wing ROI (p = 0.06). CONCLUSION: In our sample, the presence of B symptoms was associated with increased (18)F-FDG uptake in bone marrow.