Value of multi slice spiral computed tomography in diagnosing lymph node metastasis of gastric cancer / 中国医学科学院学报

ABSTRACT

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the value of multi-slice spiral computed tomography (CT) in the preoperative evaluation of lymph node metastasis.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Totally 45 patients with gastric cancer detected by 64-slice spiral CT were enrolled in this study. The potential lymph node metastasis was evaluated by measuring or calculating the long diameter, extent of enhancement, and short-to-long diameter ratio of the lymph nodes. The results were compared with postoperative pathological findings.</p><p><b>RESULT</b>A long diameter ≥ 8mm,enhanced density ≥ 80Hu, and short-to-long diameter ratio ≥ 0.7 had the best consistency with postoperative pathological findings.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>As a simple and noninvasive technique, multi-slice spiral CT is helpful to identify potential lymph node metastasis of gastric cancer based on long diameter, extent of enhancement, and short-to-long diameter ratio of the lymph nodes, and thus provide important information for surgery selection, prognosis, and development of new procedures.</p>