Clinical Study
B-Flow Twinkling Sign in Preoperative Evaluation of Cervical Lymph Nodes in Patients with Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma
Table 1
The diagnostic performance of sonographic criteria for metastatic lymph nodes in 83 patients with papillary thyroid cancer.
| US features | Total lymph nodes (604) | Metastatic lymph nodes (298) | Sensitivity (%) | Specificity (%) | | PPV | NPV |
| Round shape Short to long axis (diameter ratio > 0.5) | 183 | 155 | 52 | 90.8 | 131.3 0.0000 | 84.7 | 66 |
| Abnormal echogenicity | 290 | 244 | 81.9 | 85 | 270.3 0.0000 | 84.1 | 82.8 |
| Absence of the hilum | 400 | 274 | 91.9 | 58.8 | 174 0.0000 | 68.5 | 88.2 |
| Calcification | 94 | 93 | 31.2 | 99.7 | 109.5 0.0000 | 98.9 | 59.8 |
| Cystic change | 63 | 63 | 21.1 | 100 | 72.2 0.0000 | 100 | 56.6 |
| Peripheral vascularity | 238 | 142 | 47.6 | 68.6 | 16.7 0.0000 | 59.7 | 57.4 |
| BFI-TS | 242 | 241 | 80.9 | 99.7 | 407.9 0.0000 | 99.6 | 84.2 |
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US: Ultrasound; LNs: lymph nodes; PPV: positive predictive value; NPV: negative predictive value; BFI-TS: B-flow imaging twinkling sign.
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