The effect of sonographic elastography on diagnosing the axillary lymph nodes in patients with breast cancer

Objective To explore the effect of sonographic elastography on diagnosing the axillary lymph nodes in patients with breast cancer. Methods One hundred and thirty four patients of breast cancer with 160 axillary lymph nodes were analyzed respectively in this study.The properties of axillary lymph nodes were evaluated by conventional ultrasound and sonographic elastography,respectively.The accuracy of two different evaluation methods for reactive and metastatic lymph nodes were evaluated according to pathological diagnosis results.The sensitiveness and specificity was analyzed by the McNemar method. Results In the conventional ultrasound method,the ratio of diagnosis for L/S＜2,the thickness of lymph node cortex≥0.3 cm,the extent for blood flow abundance,blood type for reactive lymph nodes are 29.2%,41.5%,26.2%,and 16.9%,respectively;and for lymph node metastasis are 69.5%,68.4%,73.7%,and 86.3%,respectively.In the sonographic elastography method,the ratio of diagnosis for 1 grade,2 grades,3 grades,and 4 grades of reactive lymph nodes are 80.0%,58.5%,84.6%,and 38.5%;and for lymph node metastasis are 31.6%,60.0%,50.5%,and 64.2%,respectively.Compared with the conventional ultrasound method,the sonographic elastography can increase the susceptibility from 63.2% to 73.8%(P=0.014),and also can increase the specificity significantly from 64.4% to 72.9%,the difference had statistically significance(P=0.043).The area under the curve in the elastography score(0.829) was greater than the conventional ultrasound(0.763).The difference was statistically significant(P＜0.05). Conclusion The sonographic elastography method can improve the accuracy and specificity in the judging of the properties of axillary lymph nodes of patients with breast cancer,and can offer the reliable basis for clinical axillary lymph node dissection.