Correlations between functional imaging markers derived from PET/CT and diffusion-weighted MRI in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and follicular lymphoma

To investigate the correlations between functional imaging markers derived from positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) and diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DWI) in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and follicular lymphoma (FL). Further to compare the usefulness of these tumor markers in differentiating diagnosis of the two common types of Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL). Thirty-four consecutive pre-therapy adult patients with proven NHL (23 DLBCL and 11 FL) underwent PET/CT and MRI examinations and laboratory tests. The maximum standardized uptake value (SUV(max)), metabolic tumor volume (MTV), and metabolic tumor burden (MTB) were determined from the PET/CT images. DWI was performed in addition to conventional MRI sequences using two b values (0 and 800 s/mm(2)). The minimum and mean apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC(min) and ADC(mean)) were measured on the parametric ADC maps. The SUV(max) correlated inversely with the ADC(min) (r = -0.35, p