Role of Color Doppler Ultrasound in Lymphadenopathy
Role of Color Doppler Ultrasound in Lymphadenopathy
Lymphadenopathy is defined as an abnormality in the size or character of lymph nodes caused
 by the invasion or propagation of either inflammatory or neoplastic cells into the nodes
 Accurate lymph node characterization is important for a wide number of clinical situations,
 including prognosis, prediction, selecting and monitoring treatment, beyond the diagnosis
 itself (cancer, lymphoma, or inflammatory nodes)
Various ultrasound criteria that can help in differentiation of benign and malignant lymph
 nodes have been well described in literature. On Gray scale ultrasound imaging, the benign
 enlarged lymph nodes are hypoechoic, oval shaped with smooth border and echogenic hilum. On
 the other hand, the malignant lymph nodes are round with short to long axis ratio >0.5 and
 show loss of echogenic hilum, while the Color and Power Doppler features documented for the
 diagnosis of malignant lymph nodes are peripheral and mixed vascularity, with resistive index
 (RI) more than 0.8, and pulsatility index (PI) more than 1.5 Although Color Doppler
 ultrasound improves diagnostic accuracy and plays an important adjuvant role to Gray scale
 ultrasound in differentiating benign from malignant lymph nodes as it adds to the diagnostic
 confidence of predicting malignancy in enlarged lymph nodes, and also is useful if Gray scale
 ultrasound findings are equivocal. However, it can neither replace histopathology nor can
 eliminate the need for biopsy
Inclusion Criteria:

 -  clinically enlarged lymph nodes

 Exclusion Criteria:

 -  previous medical treatment or radiotherapy

 -  previous biopsy