Computed tomography Hounsfield units can predict breast cancer metastasis to axillary lymph nodes

BMC Cancer

Masakazu Urata¹  Yuko Kijima¹  Munetsugu Hirata¹  Yoshiaki Shinden¹  Hideo Arima¹  Akihiro Nakajo¹  Chihaya Koriyama²  Takaaki Arigami¹  Yoshikazu Uenosono¹  Hiroshi Okumura¹  Kosei Maemura¹  Sumiya Ishigami¹  Heiji Yoshinaka¹  Shoji Natsugoe¹ 

[1] Department of Digestive Surgery, Breast and Thyroid Surgery, Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Kagoshima University, 8-35-1, Sakuragaoka, Kagoshima 890-8520, Japan

[2] Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Kagoshima University, Kagoshima, Japan

关键词: Axillary lymph node;    Diagnosis;    Lymph node metastasis;    Hounsfield unit;    Computed tomography;    Breast cancer;   

Others  :  1121010
DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2407-14-730

 received in 2014-03-18, accepted in 2014-09-26,  发布年份 2014

【 摘 要 】

Background

Axillary lymph node (ALN) status is an important prognostic factor for breast cancer. We retrospectively used contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CE-CT) to evaluate the presence of ALN, metastasis based on size, shape, and contrasting effects.

Methods

Of 131 consecutive patients who underwent CE-CT followed by surgery for breast cancer between 2005 and 2012 in our institution, 49 were histologically diagnosed with lymph node metastasis. Maximum Hounsfield units (HU) and mean HU were measured in non-contrasting CT (NC-CT) and CE-CT of ALNs.

Results

Of 12 examined measurements, we found significant differences between negative and metastatic ALNs in mean and maximum NC-CT HU, and mean and maximum CE-CT HU (P < 0.05). We used a receiver operating curve, to determine cut-off values of four items in which significant differences were observed. The highest accuracy rate was noted for the cut-off value of 54 as maximum NC-CT HU for which sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy rate were 79.6%, 80.5% and 80.2%, respectively.

Conclusions

CT HU of a patient with breast cancer are absolute values that offer objective disease management data that are not influenced by the screener’s ability.

【 授权许可】

   
2014 Urata et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

Figure 1.

Figure 2.

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