Sonographic Evaluation of Cervical Lymphadenopathy; Comparison of Metastatic and Reactive Lymph Nodes in Patients With Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma Using Gray Scale and Doppler Techniques

BACKGROUND: Cervical lymphadenopathy could be seen in several pathologic processes. An accurate differentiation between these conditions is of utmost importance to select an appropriate therapy and assess the prognosis. Gray scale and Doppler are appropriate sonographic techniques for evaluating internal and external features of lymph nodes. Although, various criteria have been proposed to differentiate metastatic lymph nodes from benign ones, the most valuable and specific sonographic features are still under dispute. OBJECTIVES: The present study was designed to determine valuable sonographic features for differentiating metastasis from benign nodes using gray scale and Doppler sonography. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A prospective diagnostic study was performed on 63 patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) treated and referred to surgery clinic of Hazrat Rasoul Akram hospital from November 2010 to June 2012 with complaint of palpable cervical lymph node. All patients’ necks were scanned multidirectionally by gray-scale and Doppler techniques. After sonography, lymph nodes were biopsied and investigated to find out whether they were metastatic or reactive. Finally, demographic, sonographic and pathologic data were statistically analyzed by SPSS ver. 16 software using t-test, a nonparametric test and ROC analysis. Ninety five percent confidence interval was considered for all parameters. RESULTS: The study included 41 males and 22 females with a mean age of 57.56 ± 13.79 years. The number of metastatic lymph nodes was 47, while the remaining 16 were reactive. There were significant differences in length (P = 0.037), width (P = 0.001), resistance index (P < 0.001), pulsatility index (P < 0.001) and systolic velocity (P < 0.001) of metastatic and reactive lymph nodes. Cut points for resistive and pulsatility indexes and systolic velocity were calculated as 0.695, 1.35 and 16.5, respectively. The most valuable factor for defining a lymph node as metastatic was circulation pattern with accuracy, sensitivity and specificity of 94%, 85% and 93%, respectively. CONCLUSION: Gray scale sonography in combination with Doppler sonography could be a trustworthy technique in differentiating metastatic lymph nodes from reactive ones. Although, circulation pattern had a higher diagnostic accuracy in the present study, combination of sonographic characteristics could be more beneficial in differentiating metastatic cervical nodes from reactive ones.