Ultrasonographic Diagnosis in the Axillary Metastatic Lymph Nodes of Breast Cancer in Contrast to Pathology

Objective To explore the ultrasonographic characteristics of metastatic lymph nodes of the breast cancer. Methods With two dimensional and color Doppler ultrasonography, the shape, size, internal echo and hemodynamic indices of axillary metastatic lymph nodes in 45 preoperative patients with breast cancer were observed. Results Pathological examination revealed that the shape of 39 metastatic lymph nodes was close to round. Conjunctive lymph nodes were the main characeristic of nodal metastases. With the increase of the lymph nodes in size, more color signals were displayed and most of signals were around the nodes. Multiple lymph nodes showed more color signals than single ones. Conclusion The diagnostic accuracy of metastasis lymph nodes could be increased with the combination of two dimensional and color Doppler ultrasonography.