The diagnostic value of contrast-enhanced ultrasound for cervical tuberculous lymphadenitis

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the value of contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) for the diagnosis of cervical tuberculous lymphadenitis (CTL). METHODS: The cohort study included 203 consecutive patients diagnosed with cervical lymph node. Before pathological or laboratory confirmation, all patients underwent CEUS examination, and the imaging findings were analyzed afterward. The diagnostic efficiency of the CEUS imaging findings of CTL was evaluated. RESULTS: Nighty-seven patients of the 203 (47.8%) were pathologically or laboratory confirmed with a CTL diagnosis while the remainder (52.2%) were diagnosed with non-tuberculous lymphadenitis. Regarding the imaging findings of CEUS, it was more common in CTL patients to find a pattern of heterogeneous enhancement inside the lymph nodes relative to non-tuberculous patients [81.44% (79/97) vs 15.09% (16/106), P < 0.01]. The sensitivity of the feature in diagnosis for CTL was 81.44% and the specificity was 84.91%, resepectively. Furthermore, a pattern of peripheral rim-like enhancement had been notable in CTL patients compared with non-tuberculous patients [86.60% (84/97) vs 12.26% (13/106), P < 0.01], associating with a diagnostic sensitivity of 86.60% and a specificity of 87.74%. When it came to the combination of both imaging findings mentioned above, the features were more prominent in CTL patients than compared with non-tuberculous patients [74.23% (72/97) vs 5.66% (6/106), P < 0.01], with a diagnostic sensitivity of 74.23% and a high specificity of 94.34%. Regarding area under curve (AUC) for the ROC analysis, the feature of internal heterogeneous enhancement, peripheral rim-like enhancement, and both features were 0.832, 0.872, and 0.843. CONCLUSIONS: CEUS patterns of heterogeneous enhancement and peripheral rim-like enhancement of lymph nodes are helpful characteristics for the diagnosis of CTL.