CT Findings of 25 Cases of Extranodal NK/T Cell Lymphoma, Nasal Type and Misdiagnosis Analysis.

Objective To investigate the computed tomography (CT) and clinical characteristics of patients with extranodal natural killer/T-cell lymphoma, nasal type ( ENKTL) as well as the reason of misdiagnosis. Method The CT and clinical findings of 25 patients with nasal type extranodal NK/T-cell lymphoma were retrospectively reviewed, and the reasons of misdiagnosis were analyzed to avoid it. Results Of the 25 patients, 9 of 15 patients who had a sinus CT were misdiagnosed for sinusitis before admitted to our hospital. According to the extent of tumors, 16 patients showed localized type, the localized lesions were found in the anterior nasal cavity in 14 cases and in posterior part in 2 cases. On the basis of its properties, CT showed that soft tissue density tumor filled the nasal cavity, and spread along the nasal mucosa, enhanced CT showed mild to moderate heterogeneous enhancement. For localized types, bone mass showed no obvious change; for diffuse type, bone mass destruction can be showed along the middle of nasal cavity. For localized type patients, the lesions showed homogeneous density lesion in 5 cases and inhomogeneous density in 9 cases, only 2 cases showed bone change. For diffuse type patients, the lesions showed homogeneous density lesion in 5 cases and heterogeneous enhancement after enhanced CT in 4 cases. 4 cases extended to septum and orbit and hard palate and pterygopalatine fossa. Conclusion Computed tomography (CT) and clinical findings have specific manifestation which suggest the diagnosis in nasal type extranodal NK/T-cell lymphoma patients. But for localized type cases and early stages patients, no obvious specificity can be showed by imaging findings of CT and clinical symptom. Only by CT combined with clinical symptoms we can diagnose it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]