[Value of Beckenkamm histobiopsy in the diagnosis of malignant lymphoma infiltrates in bone marrow].

In order to find out the optimum method for the proof of infiltrates of malignant lymphomas in the bone marrow the frequencies of positive findings of the marrow in 41 patients with Hodgkin's disease and 89 patients with a malignant non-Hodgkin-lymphoma which were established by sternal puncture, cytology of the iliac crest and histology of the iliac crest were compared. It could be elaborated that the histobiopsy of the bone marrow is the only sufficient method for proving a specific affection of the marrow in Hodgkin's disease, since the gain of positive findings in the cytology of the iliac crest and in the sternal puncture was significantly lower in Hodgkin's disease as well as in the malignant non-Hodgkin-lymphomas. In these cases the inferiority of the cytologic methods could be explained on the one hand by the often only focal spreading of the lymphoma infiltrates in the bone marrow and on the other hand by an increased inclination to fibrosis in the focal as well as in the diffuse infiltrates. By comparison with present findings of post-mortem-examinations the representation of the biopsy cylinder of the iliac crest could be derived for the whole marrow organ, as far as the biopsy was performed technically correct.