Diagnostic Value of Shear Wave Elastography in Differentiation between Benign from Malignant Cervical Lymph Nodes

This study aims to evaluate the role of Shear Wave Elastography (SWE) in the differentiation of malignant from benign cervical lymph nodes and compare its accuracy with conventional ultrasound.  Seventy-one lymph nodes (malignant=52, benign=19) were investigated by both conventional sonography and SWE. Shear Wave Velocity (SWV) and color map were obtained for each lymph node before tissue sampling. R statistical software (x64, v3.6.1) was used for statistical analysis. Among all the conventional and elastography features, color map grading and shear wave velocity (SWV) had the most correlation with malignancy, even in normal-sized nodes. SWV was significantly correlated with the pathology (rpb=0.62, p<0.00). The best cutoff-value for SWV was 2.71 m/s (sensitivity: 82.7%, specificity:84.2%, AUC=0.92). The best predicting model by multivariate analysis was obtained by a combination of SWV and color map grading (sensitivity=92.3%, specificity=94.7%).  SWE is a valuable method for the differentiation of malignant from benign lymph nodes. It would help to find the proper lymph node for biopsy.