The Diagnostic Value of Brain Scanning in Intracranial Lymphomas

Abstract

Neurological symptoms occurring during the course of systemic lymphomas are common, but actual intracranial disease is rare. The authors studied 8 patients with intracranial lymphoma (4 with Hodgkin's disease, 3 with reticulum-cell sarcoma, and one with lymphosarcoma). Three basic brain scan patterns were seen: (a) nodular (definite focal abnormalities that appear intracerebral) ; (b) nodular-meningitic (diffuse abnormalities with areas of focal accentuation); and (c) meningitic (diffuse uniformly increased uptake). Radiation therapy relieved the clinical symptoms of 7 of these 8 patients. In 5 patients, follow-up brain scans demonstrated improvement following therapy.