Abstract

Imaging techniques are crucial in diagnosing head and neck pathologies. A thorough evaluation of deeper soft tissues such as muscles, vessels, and lymph nodes is necessary to determine the severity of a disease, its prognosis and to plan treatment. The cervical group of lymph nodes is implicated in various head and neck conditions like tuberculosis, lymphoma, and metastasis from different sites. These diseases often present as cervical lymphadenopathy during their natural progression. Ultrasound proves to be more sensitive (96.8%) than palpation (73.3%) in detecting cervical lymphadenopathies. To evaluate cervical lymphadenopathy using grayscale and color Doppler ultrasonography and compare with FNAC findings. A total of 50 patients were referred for ultrasonography of the neck with suspected cervical lymphadenopathy to the Department of Radiodiagnosis from indoor or outdoor services of Saraswathi Institute of Medical Sciences, Hapur, U.P. Among the 50 lymph nodes, 12 were proven to be malignant and 38 were proven to be benign on FNAC. Features such as S/L ratio >0.5, absence of echogenic hilum, and abnormal vascular pattern demonstrated sensitivities of 91.6%, 91.67%, and 83.3%, specificities of 73.68%, 65.79% and 63.64% and positive predictive values (PPVs) of 77.70%, 72.82%, and 69.62% respectively. Ultrasound findings of S/L ratio, absence of echogenic hilum, and abnormal vascular pattern revealed good sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy in differentiating benign and malignant lymph nodes.