J Korean Radiol Soc.  1993 Aug;29(4):794-799.

Abdominal lymphadenopathy in tuberculosis and lymphoma:Differentiation with CT

• Shin YM
• Choi BI
• Han JK
• Song CS
• Han MC
• Yang SO

Abstract

Tuberculosis and lymphoma, these 2 diseases can present with lyphadenopathy in anywhere of the body. Therefor differentiation of tuberculosis from lymphoma is often difficult. CT scans of 17 patients with tuberculosis and 23 patients with lymphoma were retrospectively reviewed to evaluate the efficacy of CT scans in differentating adenopathy between tuberculosis and lymphoma, All the patients underwent abdominal CT scans with contrast enhancement before treatment. The size, internal architecture, distribution of lymph nodes, and associated findings on CT scans were analyzed. As compared with lymphoma, tuberculous lymphadenopathy showed 1) female preponderance (65%), 2) predilection for portocaval lymph nodes (47%), 3) internal low attenuation in lymph nodes (82%), 4) cold abscess formation (24%). Characteristics of lymphoma on CT scans included 1) male prepondrance (78%), 2) conglomeration of lymph nodes (39%), 3) homogenous internal lymph node structure (83%). These results suggest that evaluation of the characteristics of lymphadenopathy on CT scans is helpful for differentiating between tuberculosis and lymphoma.

MeSH Terms

Abscess
Female
Humans
Lymph Nodes
Lymphatic Diseases*
Lymphoma
Male
Retrospective Studies
Tomography, X-Ray Computed
Tuberculosis*