Correlation of Lymphography Findings in the Abdomen with B-Scan Ultrasonic Laminography

Abstract

Lymphography is presently the most popular method for the evaluation of pelvic and paraaortic lymphatic disease and appears to be the most reliable study short of open surgical inspection and biopsy. It is well known that a negative lymphogram is not conclusive evidence of absence of disease and that a positive lymphogram is a relatively more useful entity in the diagnosis and staging of disease. We have however, as others, been experiencing an increasing number of instances in which the lymphogram was positive radiographically but open surgical lymphoadenectomy results in a histological diagnosis of reactive hyperplasia with no evidence of tumor within the excised lymph nodes. Some of these false positives are due to errors on the part of the surgeon failing to remove the radiographically positive nodes.