CEUS in differential diagnosis of benign and malignant cervical lymph nodes with different size / 中国医学影像技术

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the value of CEUS in differential diagnosis of benign and malignant cervical lymph nodes with different size. Methods Totally 142 cervical enlarged lymph nodes (68 benign and 74 malignant nodes) confirmed by pathology were divided into 3 groups according to the maximum diameter length: 2 cm groups. Conventional ultrasonic characteristics and perfusion patterns of lymph nodes in 3 groups were observed and compared with pathologic findings. Results Among benign lymph nodes, 55.88% (38/68) showed uniform and high enhancement, while 26.47% (18/68) showed nonuniform or circular enhancement with regular unenhanced areas. Among malignant lymph nodes, 72.97% (54/74) showed nonuniform enhancement with irregular perfusion defects and 14.86% (11/74) showed weak enhancement. The accuracy of conventional ultrasound in differential diagnosis of benign and malignant cervical lymph nodes of 2 cm groups were 62.16% (23/37), 69.49% (41/59) and 78.26% (36/46), of CEUS were 81.08% (30/37), 86.44% (51/59)and 86.96% (40/46).Compared with conventional ultrasound, CEUS improved diagnostic accuracy of 1-2 cm lymph node (P=0.02). Conclusion CEUS is valuable for differential diagnosis of benign and malignant lymph nodes, especially for 1-2 cm lymph nodes.