Cervical lymph node metastasis from oral cancer: Evaluation by color Doppler imaging.

Color Doppler imaging findings were reviewed for 36 lymph nodes in 13 patients with oral cancer who underwent neck dissection. Seventeen lymph nodes were histologically diagnosed as metastatic and 19 as non-metastatic. Color flow was observed in 6 nodes, all of which were non-metastatic. None of the 17 metastatic lymph nodes had color flow. Al-though 13 of the 19 non-metastatic lymph nodes also had no detectable color flow, all of these nodes were less than 10mm in diameter.These results suggest that normal or inflammatory swollen lymph nodes have color flow detectable with color Doppler imaging, and that metastasis to these nodes leads to the loss of color flow. We conclude that color Doppler imaging facilitates the diagnosis of cervical lymph node matastasis.