Ultrasound Guided Core Biopsy versus Fine Needle Aspiration for Evaluation of Axillary Lymphadenopathy in Patients with Breast Cancer

Table 2

Sensitivity of core biopsy versus FNA for detection of 70 patients with Axillary node metastases.

Factor	𝑁	Core detected 𝑁 (%)	FNA detected 𝑁 (%)	Difference in sensitivities (core-FNA)	Discordant	𝑃 value
Overall	70	61 (87.1)	55 (78.6)	8.6%	14	0.18
Number of core passes
1 pass	14	11 (78.6)
>1	56	50 (89.3)
Core needle size
12 g	9	8 (88.9)
1 core pass	8	7 (87.5)
>1 core pass	1	1 (100)
14 g or 18 g	61	53 (86.9)
1 core pass	6	4 (66.7)
>1 core pass	55	49 (89.1)
Number of FNA entries
1 entry	60		46 (76.7)
>1	10		9 (90)
FNA needle size
21 g	53		41 (77.4)
1 FNA entry	46		35 (76.1)
>1 FNA entry	7		6 (85.7)
25 g	17		14 (82.4)
1 FNA entry	14		11 (78.6)
>1 FNA entry	3		3 (100)
Hilus
Present	51	44 (86.3)	36 (70.6)	15.7%	12
Absent	19	17 (89.5)	19 (100)	−10.5%	2
Cortex
2 mm	1	1 (100)	0 (0)	100.0%	1
2.1–4 mm	13	8 (61.5)	7 (53.8)	7.7%	3
4.1–6 mm	20	18 (90)	15 (75)	15.0%	5
>6 mm	36	34 (94.4)	33 (91.7)	2.8%	5
Shape
Normal	21	16 (76.2)	11 (52.4)	23.8%	5
Focal bulge	20	19 (95)	16 (80)	15.0%	5
Round	23	22 (95.7)	22 (95.7)	0.0%	2
Ill-defined	6	4 (66.7)	6 (100)	−33.3%	2
Number of suspicious nodes
1	31	26 (83.9)	23 (74.2)	9.7%	7
2	16	13 (81.3)	11 (68.8)	12.5%	4
3	10	10 (100)	9 (90)	10.0%	1
4 or more	13	12 (92.3)	12 (92.3)	0.0%	2
Tumor size by imaging
5 mm–1 cm	4	4 (100)	2 (50)	50.0%	2
>1 cm-2 cm	19	16 (84.2)	14 (73.7)	10.5%	4
>2 cm–5 cm	36	31 (86.1)	31 (86.1)	2.8%	5
>5 cm	11	9 (81.8)	8 (72.7)	9.1%	3
Chemotherapy status
No chemotherapy	26	20 (76.9)	17 (65.4)	11.5%	5
Neoadjuvant	40	37 (92.5)	34 (85.0)	7.5%	9
Other*	4	4 (100)	4 (100)	0.0%	0

*Other: 4 patients were both core and FNA positive but did not have axillary surgery.