Background: Enlarged lymph node is a marked dilemma in clinical practice. Common causes included; reactive hyperplasia, lymphoma, lymphadenitis, granuloma, metastasis, tuberculosis.
Objective: The aim of our study was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of shear wave elastography in differentiation between benign and malignant lymphadenopathy and to highlight the adjuvant rule of elastography as a complementary imaging technique to conventional US.
Methodology: Our study included 25 patients fulfilled the selection criteria and formed the study population. The present study was conducted in Radiology Department, Sohag University hospital from January 2017 till June 2017. The mean age was 46.4 ± 17.1 years ranged from 22 to 80 years. They were subjected to B-mode ultrasonography (US), Color Doppler sonography (CDS) and shear wave elastography.
Results: The optimal cut-off points were 19.44 Kpa and 2.59 m/s for average elasticity and mean shear wave velocity respectively. It shows 68.75%, 77.8% and 72% sensitivity, specificity and accuracy respectively in detection of malignant lymphadenopathy. The efficacy reached 92%, 100% and 93.8% for sensitivity, specificity and accuracy respectively after exclusion of tuberculous and lymphoproliferative cases with significant improvement in efficacy of shear wave elastography.
Conclusion: CDS has more efficacy than conventional US at detection of malignant lymphadenopathy and shear wave elastography has additive value for both.