Ultrasonographic Evaluation of Cervical Lymph Nodes in Thyroid Cancer

Objective

To determine what ultrasonographic features can identify metastatic cervical lymph nodes, both preoperatively and in recurrences after complete thyroidectomy.

Study Design

Prospective.

Setting

Outpatient clinic, Department of Head and Neck Surgery, School of Medicine, University of São Paulo, Brazil.

Subjects and Methods

A total of 1976 lymph nodes were evaluated in 118 patients submitted to total thyroidectomy with or without cervical lymph node dissection. All the patients were examined by cervical ultrasonography, preoperatively and/or postoperatively. The following factors were assessed: number, size, shape, margins, presence of fatty hilum, cortex, echotexture, echogenicity, presence of microcalcification, presence of necrosis, and type of vascularity. The specificity, sensitivity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of each variable were calculated. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted. A receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve was plotted to determine the best cutoff value for the number of variables to discriminate malignant lymph nodes.

Results

Significant differences were found between metastatic and benign lymph nodes with regard to all of the variables evaluated (P < .05). Logistic regression analysis revealed that size and echogenicity were the best combination of altered variables (odds ratio, 40.080 and 7.288, respectively) in discriminating malignancy. The ROC curve analysis showed that 4 was the best cutoff value for the number of altered variables to discriminate malignant lymph nodes, with a combined specificity of 85.7%, sensitivity of 96.4%, and efficiency of 91.0%.

Conclusion

Greater diagnostic accuracy was achieved by associating the ultrasonographic variables assessed rather than by considering them individually.

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