An alternative imaging modality to scintigraphy in noninvasive diagnosis of splenosis in patients with posttraumatic splenectomy: Diffusion weighted imaging

Aim/background: To assess the role of diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) in diagnosis of post-traumatic splenosis. Methods: We retrospectively evaluated 26 post-traumatic splenectomy patients (19 men and 7 women; mean age 29.4 years) with abdominal mass(es) suspicious for splenosis on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) including DWI. The thirteen of these patients had scintigraphic imaging. The other thirteen patients had only MRI. In control group, 30 individuals (20 men and 10 women; mean age 33.1 years) were enrolled for investigating the mean ADC value of spleen. The b value of 1000 s/mm2 was preferred due to perfusion contamination of low b values. Results: The mean ADC value of masses and spleen were 0.790±0.087x10-3mm2/s and 0.8075±0.084x10-3mm2/s respectively. All of the masses appeared hyperintense on DWI and hypointense on ADC map, and the mean ADC value of masses were showed similarity with the mean ADC value of spleen. The thirteen patients showed positive Results for splenosis on scintigraphy. In addition to medical history and conventional MRI of the masses, DWI allowed the diagnosis of splenosis to be assigned in all patients. Conclusion: Measurement of the mean ADC value in suspected post-traumatic splenosis patients otherwise healthy may be an indicator in the determination of splenosis as an alternative imaging modality to scintigraphy.