The Accuracy of Diagnostic Ultrasound in Detecting Retroperitoneal Lymph Node Enlargement in Malignant Lymphoma and Hodgkin’s Disease

Abstract

Two hundred thirty abdominal ultrasound examinations were done on 124 patients with a proven diagnosis of malignant lymphoma or Hodgkin’s disease between 1970 and 1973 in an attempt to detect the presence of retroperitoneal lumph node enlargement secondary to malignancy. In 35 cases, tissue confirmation was obtained by either laparotomy or autopsy. In 32 of 35 cases, the ultrasound finding of either enlarged or not enlarged retroperitoneal lumph nodes was confirmed. Of 2 6 patients with positive retroperitoneal scans, 2 3 were found to have enlarged nodes at exploration (88% accuracy of detection). In 3 of these cases the node enlargement was due to other causes, giving a histological confirmation in 20 of 26 cases (77% specificity). There were nine negative ultrasound scans in which tissue confirmation was available, with 100% correlation. In this series ultrasound was more accurate than lymphangiography and Gallium scanning in evaluating retroperitoneal involvement in malignant lymphoma and Hodgkin’s disease.