POWER DOPPLER SONOGRAPHY OF CERVICAL LYMPH-NODES IN PATIENTS WITH HEAD AND NECK-CANCER

PURPOSE: The purpose of this preliminary study was to evaluate the use fulness of power Doppler sonography in differentiating metastatic from nonmetastatic cervical lymph nodes in patients with cancer, METHODS: Histologically proved metastatic (n = 71) and nonmetastatic (n = 220) lymph nodes were examined with power Doppler sonography in 77 patients with head and neck cancer, Power Doppler sonography was assessed for its ability to differentiate metastatic from nonmetastatic lymph nodes , RESULTS: Power Doppler sonography showed characteristic features of parenchymal blood flow signal in 59 (83%) of the 71 metastatic lymph n odes. By contrast, only four (2%) of the 220 nonmetastatic nodes showe d these power Doppler signals. In addition, power Doppler sonography s howed high levels of sensitivity (83%) and specificity (98%) in depict ing metastatic lymph nodes, which were superior to the values (66% sen sitivity and 92% specificity) obtained by applying size criteria (tran sverse to longitudinal ratio), However, a combination of the two crite ria (parenchymal color signal and transverse to longitudinal ratio) im proved diagnostic accuracy to 92% sensitivity and 100% specificity. CO NCLUSION: Our preliminary findings suggest that the power Doppler crit eria of no hilar flow, peripheral parenchymal nodal flow and a transve rse to longitudinal ratio of more than 0.65 together constitute a powe rful tool for depicting metastatic lymph nodes in patients with cancer .