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 (%)	𝑃	PPV	NPV
Round shape; Short to long axis (diameter ratio > 0.5)	183	155	52	90.8	𝜒^2 131.3; 𝑃 0.0000	84.7	66
Abnormal echogenicity	290	244	81.9	85	𝜒^2 270.3; 𝑃 0.0000	84.1	82.8
Absence of the hilum	400	274	91.9	58.8	𝜒^2 174; 𝑃 0.0000	68.5	88.2
Calcification	94	93	31.2	99.7	𝜒^2 109.5; 𝑃 0.0000	98.9	59.8
Cystic change	63	63	21.1	100	𝜒^2 72.2; 𝑃 0.0000	100	56.6
Peripheral vascularity	238	142	47.6	68.6	𝜒^2 16.7; 𝑃 0.0000	59.7	57.4
BFI-TS	242	241	80.9	99.7	𝜒^2 407.9; 𝑃 0.0000	99.6	84.2

US: Ultrasound; LNs: lymph nodes; PPV: positive predictive value; NPV: negative predictive value; BFI-TS: B-flow imaging twinkling sign.