Objective To investigate the ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT imaging characteristics in secondary bone lymphoma.

Methods A total of 46 patients with ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT imaging of secondary bone lymphoma from April 2012 to June 2015 were selected; the PET/CT imaging characteristics were retrospectively analyzed. The patients were divided according to the results of their bone marrow biopsies:negative and positive groups. The SUV of the biopsy sites in ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT imaging between the two groups were compared by independent sample t test, and the receiver operating characteristic curve(ROC) of the SUV in the puncture sites in the diagnosis of secondary bone lymphoma was drawn.

Results The 46 cases of secondary bone lymphoma included 6 cases of Hodgkin's lymphoma and 40 cases of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The cases comprised 10 cases of single bone lesion, 18 cases of multiple bone lesions, and 18 cases of diffuse bone lesions in the whole body. The bone densities of the 46 cases were abnormal with the following conditions:31 cases of bone marrow infiltration type(67.40%), 10 cases of mixed type(21.74%), 3 cases of sclerosis type(6.52%), and 2 cases of osteolysis type(4.34%); 32 cases of humeral or femoral involvement(69.57%) with the bone marrow infiltration type was included. The independent sample t-test in the negative and positive groups showed a t value of 4.036, P < 0.001, revealing that the difference was statistically significant. The ROC curve of the SUV in the puncture sites in the diagnosis of secondary bone lymphoma showed a cut-off value of 2.35; the specificity and sensitivity of the diagnosis of secondary bone lymphoma were 83.3% and 80.0%, respectively.

Conclusions The PET/CT imaging features of secondary bone lymphoma showed certain characteristics that are important and of clinical value to the diagnosis and differential diagnosis of secondary bone lymphoma, thus revealing that it has instructional significance for choosing biopsy sites.