Purpose: Long-term follow-up of residual mediastinal masses in treated Hodgkin's disease using MR imaging.
Material and methods: Ten patients, with substantial residual mediastinal masses of low signal intensity (SI) in the T2-weighted image (T2WI), were reinvestigated with MR 19-79 months after completing treatment of Hodgkin's disease. All patients were in complete remission.
Results: During the follow-up period, the masses had decreased in size by 0-95% (median 67%) as compared to their initial post-therapy size. The SI continued to be low in the T2WI and was unaffected by the degree of size reduction.
Conclusion: It is speculated that these mainly fibrotic residual masses undergo slow degradation of the fibrotic part and/or resorption of remaining inflammatory tissue. It is important to understand the natural, long-term MR imaging changes of these residual masses in order more easily to recognize tumour recurrence or other pathologic conditions.