1. Usefulness of ultrasonography for the evaluation of cervical lymphadenopathy.
- Author
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Khanna, Rahul, Sharma, Avinash Dutt, Khanna, Seema, Kumar, Mohan, and Shukla, Ram C.
- Subjects
LYMPH nodes ,LYMPHOMAS ,LYMPHATICS ,LUNG diseases ,TUBERCULOSIS ,CANCER invasiveness ,BACTERIAL diseases - Abstract
Aim: To evaluate the role of ultrasonography for differentiating cervical lymphadenopathy due to tuberculosis, metastasis and lymphoma. Methods: Ultrasonography of the neck nodes was carried out prior to FNAC in 192 patients using a 10 mHz linear transducer. The sonographic findings were then correlated with the definitive tissue diagnosis obtained by FNAC or lymph node biopsy. Results: The most significant distinguishing feature was strong internal echoes seen in 84% of tubercular lymph nodes. This finding was found in only 11% of metastatic nodes and absent in lymphomatous nodes. The other findings such as L/S ratio, irregular margins, hypoechoic center, fusion tendency, peripheral halo and absent hilus were helpful in differentiating reactive from diseased nodes but showed considerable overlap in the 3 groups of tubercular, metastatic and lymphoma lymph nodes. Conclusion: Ultrasonography is noninvasive and can give useful clues in the diagnosis of cervical lymphadenopathy. It should be interpreted in conjunction with FNAC result. Ideally ultra-sonographic guided FNAC should be obtained from the sonographically most representative node. In FNAC indeterminate cases, sonographic features may obviate the need for an invasive lymph node biopsy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2011
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