Association between magnetic resonance imaging patterns and baseline disease features in multiple myeloma: analyzing surrogates of tumour mass and biology

Objective To assess associations between bone marrow infiltration patterns and localization in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and baseline clinical/prognostic parameters in multiple myeloma (MM). Methods We compared baseline MM parameters, MRI patterns and localization of focal lesions to the mineralized bone in 206 newly diagnosed MM patients. Results A high tumour mass (represented by International Staging System stage III) was significantly associated with severe diffuse infiltration (p = 0.015) and a higher number of focal lesions (p = 0.006). Elevated creatinine (p = 0.003), anaemia (p