Differential diagnosis of superficial lymphadenophathy with color Doppler flow imaging / 中华超声影像学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To depict the characteristics of the flow shape and distribution of superficial lymphadenophathy and to clarify the effiency of color Doppler flow imaging and power Doppler sonography in the differential diagnosis.Methods Prospectively,81 cases with 95 lesions were observed and clarified as four vascular patterns by sonography and were correlated with the histopathological or clinical diagnosis.The four vascular patterns were as follows type Ⅰ shows central hilar vascularity with radial symmetric branches; type Ⅱ shows eccentric hilar vascularity with deformed radial branches; type Ⅲ shows subcapsular vessels(Ⅲa),mixed vessels(Ⅲb),or multifocal hilar vasculature(Ⅲc); type Ⅳ shows spotted or peripheral flow signals.Results The majority ( 85.0% ) of the benign reactive nodes revealed a vascular pattern of type Ⅰ,while a few ( 10.0% ) showed that of type Ⅱ.The most( 97.8% ) of lymphoma showed the patterns of type Ⅱ( 33.3% ) and type Ⅲ( 64.5% , and Ⅲa 28.9% ,Ⅲb 22.2% ,Ⅲb 13.4% ,respectively).The vascular patterns of metastatic lymphadenopathies were of type Ⅳ( 66.7% ) and type Ⅲb(26.7%).The lymphoma which revealed a vascular pattern of type Ⅱ were mostly of high grade differentiation in pathological results.The differrent vascular types of metastatic nodes has no correlation with its histologic source.Conclusions Color Doppler sonography is a valuable method for aid in the differential diagnosis of superficial lymphadenophathy by using findings of intranodal vascularity.