Clinical Study Of Color Doppler Ultrasound And Elastography On Cervical Lymph Node Metastasis Of Thyroid Cancer

Objective:To explore the diagnostic value of the color doppler flow imaging (CDFI) and Ultrasound elastography on patients with thyroid cancers and metastasizing cervical lymph nodes.Materials and methods:Sixty five patients with suspected thyroid cancers were enrolled in this study. Totally, the 177 cervical lymph nodeswere checked by ultrasound, color doppler flow imaging and ultrasound elastography in our hospital from May in 2013 to April in 2015. Finally,169 cervical lymph nodes from 62 patients with thyroid cancer confirmed by pathology after operation or aspiration biopsy were evaluated. Diagnostic value of the three methods of identifing the nature of the cervical lymph nodes were evaluated and compared with each other.Results:1. Among the 169 cervical lymph nodes,73 were confirmed to be benign and 96 were proved to be malignant.2. The sensitivity of ultrasound, color doppler flow imaging and ultrasound elastography were 77.1%,83.3% and 92.7%, respectively. Specificity of the three methods were 74.0%,76.7% and 80.8%, respectively. Accuracy of the three were 75.5%,80.4% and 87.6%, respectively. The accuracy of the ultrasound elastography was obviously higher than that of ultrasound and color doppler flow imaging. The differences were sigfigant. (P< 0.001)Conclusion:1. Ultrasound elastography has higher accuracy to identify the metastatic cervical lymph nodes in thyroid cancer. The clinical value was quite high and it is worthy of further promotion.2. Inpatients with thyroid cancers and metastasitic cervical lymph nodes, the diagnostic value of ultrasound elastography is higher than that of the two-dimensional ultrasound and the color doppler flow imaging.3. It is wise to combine Ultrasound elastography with two-dimensional ultrasound and the color Doppler flow imaging to improve the accuracy and reduce the misdiagnosis.