A Prospective Multimodal Imaging Assessment of Cervical Lymphadenopathy: Evaluating the Incremental Diagnostic Performance of B-mode Ultrasonography and Elastography with Histopathological Correlation in the Differentiation of Benign and Malignant Etiologies

Abstract

The aim of the study is to evaluate the role and diagnostic utility of B-mode ultrasonogram and elastography prospectively to differentiate the benign and malignant causes of cervical lymphadenopathy and the primary objective is to compare the results of ultrasonogram and elastography with histopathological examination (HPE) in order to determine the accuracy and efficacy of sonoelastography in differentiating: benign nodes (including reactive and tuberculous lymphadenitis) from malignant nodes (metastatic carcinoma and lymphoma) and among benign nodes, distinguishing tuberculous from reactive lymphadenitis where possible. Whereas the secondary objectives are to: a) determine the individual as well as combined role of ultrasonogram, Doppler and elastography in categorizing the benign and malignant nature of lymph nodes; b) to determine the role of sonoelastography in staging of head and neck cancers with cervical lymphadenopathy; and c) to evaluate replacing invasive methods like fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC)/biopsy with non-invasive elastography for diagnosing malignant nodes.