Abdominal lymphadenopathy in tuberculosis and lymphoma: Differentiation with CT

Tuberculosis and lymphoma, these 2 dieases can present with lymphadenopathy in anywhere of the body. Therefore 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 percolative lymph nodes (47%), 3) internal low attenuation in lymph nodes (82%), 4) cold abscess formation (24%). Characteristics of lymphoma on CT scans include 1) male preponderance (78%), 2) conglomeration of lymph nodes (39%), 3) homogeneous internal lymph node structure (83%). These results suggest that evaluation of the cahracteristics of lymphadenopathy on CT scans is helpful for differentiating between tuberculousis and lymphoma