| Objective To differentiate metastatic lymph nodes from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma lymph nodes in abdomen by CT evaluation. Methods Metastatic lymph nodes and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma lymph nodes in abdomen, thirty cases each, were retrospectively analyzed from 2001-2004 in our hospital. Attenuation values on plain CT were measured for one or two lymph node which selected randomly in one patient. Lymph nodes with the maximum short axis diameter more than 1.0cm were accepted and the whole lymph node as region of interest was measured. Distribution regions and enhancement patterns of lymph nodes were also recorded. The SPSS was used for data analysis.Results On plain CT scanning, there was remarkable difference in attenuation values (t= 7.216,p< 0.01). The average value of metastatic lymph nodes was 32.53±5.19HU and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma 40.15±4.29HU. Metastatic Lymph nodes had a portion of enhancing patters as below: homogeneous (43.3%, 13/30) .peripheral (40.0%, 12/30), homogeneous with peripheral (10%, 3/30) and the other (6.7%, 2/30) . Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma lymph nodes had a portion of enhancing patters as below: homogeneous attenuation (76.7%, 23/30) .peripheral ( 10%, 3/30), homogeneous with peripheral (3.3%, 1/30) and the other (10%, 3/30) . The SPSS analysis demonstrated the difference between this two had a significance in peripheral enhancement patters with p < 0.01. In distribution region, metastatic lymph nodes involved predominantly high paraaortic and lesser omental areas. However, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma lymph nodes distributed more in high and low paraaortic, mesenteric regions than anterior pararenal, lesser omental and greater omental regions.Conclusion A conclusion was made that metastatic and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma lymph nodes in abdomen can be differentiated by helix CT scanning. CT is a valuable way in comparing the two.
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