Ultrasound and ultrasonically guided biopsy in hepatic lymphoma.

From August 1982 to December 1985, 125 patients with lymphoma in different periods of the disease, underwent abdominal ultrasound (US) examination. The value of US in detecting lymphomatous involvement of the liver was determined in 75 histologically proved patients, to improve the US accuracy rate we combined it with ultrasonically guided fine needle aspiration biopsy (UGFNAB), whenever a focal lesion was disclosed in the liver. US had a sensitivity of 61.5%, a specificity of 93.5% with an overall accuracy of 88%. No specific pattern of involvement was revealed by US. The UGFNAB allowing a cytological diagnosis avoided false positive results and improved overall accuracy from 88 to 93%. We therefore believe that US should be regarded as the first imaging method to detect hepatic involvement by lymphoma and when a focal lesion is disclosed the UGFNAB should be the first invasive procedure to obtain a definite cytological diagnosis.