Ultrasonic appearance and diagnostic criteria of peripheral neurilemmoma / 中华超声影像学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the ultrasonic appearance of peripheral neurilemmoma.Methods Ultrasonic appearances of 43 patients with 46 neurilemmomas confirmed by surgery and pathology were analyzed retrospectively and compared with their MRI and pathological features.Results Forty-five neurilemmomas were with regular shape and clear boundary,except one at the root of nerve C4 that was irregular in shape and unclear in boundary,like adumbbell.Sonography showed that there were 30 neurilemmomas displaying as solid tumors,15 as cystic and solid,and 1 as entirely cystic.Posterior echoenhancement,target sign,rat tail sign and vessels accompanying sign were found in 39,21,23 and 17 neurilemmomas,respectively.There were 4 neurilemmomas with ultrasound blood flow grade 0,9 with grade Ⅰ,22 with gradeⅡ,and 11 with grade Ⅲ.The target signs were found in 21 cases (21/46,45.6％) and 26 cases (26/46,56.5 ％) by ultrasound and MRI,respectively.The capability of ultrasound finding the target sign in neurilemmoma was comparable to MRI(Kappa =0.527,P ＜0.001).The diagnostic accuracy rate of neurilemmoma by ultrasonography was 73.9％(34/46).Conclusions The ultrasound has a relatively high detection of the target sign in neurilemmoma,which may provide a new basis for the ultrasonic diagnosis of neurilemmoma.