Role of ultrasound in diagnosing axillary lymph node metastases from breast carcinoma

Objective:To study the relation between sonographic characters of axillary lymph node metastases,including image features of breast carcinoma and those of axillary lymph nodes,and pathological findings.Methods:To retrospectively analyze the sonographies of 145 patients with breast carcinomas who had been detected 278 axilary lymph nodes,to study the relation between the sonographic characters of axillary lymph node metastases and pathological findings,including blood supply in primary tumor and its length,blood flow in lymph node,its cortical thickness and its long to short diameter ratio.Univariate,multivariate logistic regression analyses and ROC curve were conducted to determine the value of each sonographic feature.Results:Every sonographic feature assessed were correlated with axillary lymph node metastasis by univatriat analysis (P0.01).It was suggested that length of primary tumor,cortical thickness of lymph node and its long to short diameter ratio were the sonographic features indicating axillary lymph node metastasis,especially cortical thickness of lymph node by multivariate analysis.Cortical thickness of lymph node was the best indicator to appraise axillary lymph node metastasis by ROC curve.Conclusion:It is useful to diagnose axillary lymph node metastasis by analyzing sonographic characters of breast carcinoma and axillary lymph nodes.