The Vascular Distribution in Axillary nodes of Breast Cancer Using Color Doppler Sonography to Assess Metastasis

摘要

Background: Axillary node staging represents one of the prognostic factors in breast cancer therapy. Sonography consistently has high preoperative sensitivity and specificity in predicting status of the lymph node. Objective: To evaluate the vascular distribution using color Doppler sonography in axillary lymph node in patients with breast cancer to assess a presence of metastasis. Materials and Methods: Twenty-three breast cancer patients were used in the study (range 20-79 years old) and underwent Modified Radical Mastectomy. Patients would be performed gray scale US followed by color Doppler sonography to evaluate the vascular distribution before surgery. Histopathologic results of axillary lymph node were used to compare with US results. Diagnostic test and Chi-square test were performed to analyze the hypothesis. Results: Of 23 patients regarding features of the peripheral vascular distribution, mean age was 46.5 ± 11.6 yo, while 53.4 ± 12.5 yo for the central vascular distribution, in which most patients were belonging to age groups of 40-49 and 50-59 years, namely each age group accounted for four cases. Sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive predictive value and negative predictive value were 66.7%, 50%, 60.9%, 71.4%, 44.4%, respectively. Chi-square test revealed no significant difference between color Doppler US and histopathologic result. Conclusion: The vascular distribution of the axillary nodes using color Doppler sonography in breast cancer patients is unsuitable enough as a diagnostic tool to assess metastasis.