• Kyeong Hwa Ryu, Seokho Yoon, Hye Jin Baek, Tae Hoon Kim, Jin Il Moon, Bo Hwa Choi, Sung Eun Park, Ji Young Ha, Dae Hyun Song, Hyo Jung An, and Young Jin Heo.
• Department of Radiology, Gyeongsang National University School of Medicine and Gyeongsang National University Changwon Hospital, 11 Samjeongja-ro, Seongsan-gu, Changwon 51472, Korea.
• Medicina (Kaunas). 2019 Dec 31; 56 (1).

AbstractBackground andObjectives: To investigate the diagnostic performance of F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) and subsequent ultrasonography (US) for determining cervical nodal metastasis in oncology patients. Materials and Methods: Fifty-nine cervical lymph nodes (LNs) initially detected by PET/CT with subsequent neck US were included in this retrospective study. All LNs were subjected to US-guided fine-needle aspiration or core needle biopsy. The maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) and sonographic features were assessed. Results: Forty-three of 59 cervical LNs detected by PET/CT were malignant. PET/CT alone showed a highest diagnostic value for metastatic LNs with 81.4% sensitivity, 68.8% specificity, and 78% accuracy when SUVmax ≥5.8 was applied as an optimal cut-off value. Combined PET/CT and subsequent US diagnoses for determining nodal metastasis showed the following diagnostic performance: 81.4% sensitivity, 87.5% specificity, and 83.1% accuracy. There was a significant difference in the diagnostic performance between the two diagnostic imaging approaches (p = 0.006). Conclusions: Combined diagnosis using subsequent US showed a significantly higher diagnostic performance for determining nodal metastasis in the neck. Therefore, we believe that our proposed diagnostic strategy using subsequent US can be helpful in evaluating cervical LNs on PET/CT. Moreover, our results clarify the need for US-guided tissue sampling in oncology patients.

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