Role of color Doppler ultrasound in differentiation between benign and malignant lymphadenopathy

Abstract

Objective To evaluate the accuracy of color Doppler ultrasound in differentiation between benign and malignant enlarged lymph nodes compared with histopathological correlation. Patients and methods In all, 100 patients with lymphadenopathy in various age groups participated in this prospective study. Grayscale and color Doppler ultrasound (CDUS) was done for all of them, and then a comparison with histopathological data was done. Results Grayscale ultrasound had 88.9% sensitivity and 100% specificity with an area under the curve of 0.94 in the prediction of malignant LNs, while CDUS had 100% sensitivity and 87.8% specificity with an area under the curve of 0.93, The pulsatile index at a cutoff point >1.39 had 77.8% sensitivity and 100% specificity in the prediction of malignant LNs with an area under the curve of 0.87, while the resistive index at a cutoff point >0.69 had 78% sensitivity and 100% specificity with an area under the curve of 0.89. Conclusion Differentiation between benign and malignant lymph nodes using CDUS is a reliable and noninvasive technique.