Abstract
PURPSOE: To investigate the diagnostic value of quantitative analysis of a tissue diffusion and virtual touch tissue imaging quantification (VTIQ) technique with acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) elastography for assessing enlarged cervical lymph nodes. Fifty-six enlarged cervical lymph nodes confirmed by pathologic diagnoses were covered in the study. According to the results of pathologic diagnosis, patients were classified into benign and malignant groups. All the patients were examined by both conventional ultrasonography and elastography. AREA% and shear wave velocity (SWV) in ROI of different groups were calculated and compared using ROC curves. Cut-off points of AREA% and SWV were determined with receiver operating characteristic curves. Final histopathological results revealed 21 cases of benign and 35 cases of malignant lymph nodes. The mean values of AREA% and SWV in benign and malignant groups were 45.0 ± 17.9% and 2.32 ± 0.57 m/s, and 61.3 ± 21.29% and 4.36 ± 1.25)m/s, respectively. For the parameters of elastography, "AREA%"and SWV demonstrated significant differences between groups (p=0.002). AREA% was positively correlated with SWV with a correlation coefficient of 0.809 (P<0.001). Stiffness of different lymph node diseases in patients may differ. Elastography can evaluate changes sensitively and provide valuable information to doctors. The study proved that the VTIQ elastography technique can play an important role in differential diagnosis of lymph nodes.
Highlights
The differentiation of malignant from benign lymph nodes has important significance as it is a common situation faced by clinicians
General features There were 56 lymph nodes included in our group of which 21were benign (15 cases of non specific lymphadenitis and 6 cases of Tuberculous) and 31 were malignant (18 adenocarcinomas, 10squamous carcinomas, 5 papillary thyroid carcinomas and 2 small cell carcinoma)
ROC curves were constructed in order to determine the best cutoff value of AREA% and SWV malignant lymph nodes from benign nodes
Summary
The differentiation of malignant from benign lymph nodes has important significance as it is a common situation faced by clinicians. Conventional ultrasound was the preferred screening method of lymph nodes with low specificity. Since the clinical application of ultrasound elasticity,reflecting the fact of tissue stiffness at many sites to differentiate malignant from benign lesions in the breast, thyroid, liver, etc. A few preliminary reports suggest that this technique was positively correlated with histopathological reasults (Klotz et al, 2014; Ying Shi et al, 2014; Han et al, 2015). The application of quantitative elasticity techniques include elastic tissue diffusion quantitative and acoustic radiation force impulse imaging technology (Dawood et al, 2014; Fu et al, 2014). The main objective of was to assess utility of elastic diffusion quantitative comparing ARFI for improved lymph node evaluation
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
