Diagnostic Value of Shear Wave Elastography in Differentiation between Benign from Malignant Cervical Lymph Nodes

Background: this study aims to evaluate the role of shear wave elastography (swe) in the differentiation of malignant from benign cervical lymph nodes and compare its accuracy with conventional ultrasound. methods: seventy-one lymph nodes (malignant=52, benign=19) were investigated by both conventional sonography and swe. shear wave velocity (swv) and color map were obtained for each lymph node before tissue sampling. r statistical software (x64, v3.6.1) was used for statistical analysis. results: among all the conventional and elastography features, color map grading and shear wave velocity (swv) had the most correlation with malignancy, even in normal-sized nodes. swv was significantly correlated with the pathology (rpb=0.62, p<0.00). the best cutoffvalue for swv was 2.71 m/s (sensitivity: 82.7%, specificity:84.2%, auc=0.92). the best predicting model by multivariate analysis was obtained by a combination of swv and color map grading (sensitivity=92.3%, specificity=94.7%). conclusion: swe is a valuable method for the differentiation of malignant from benign lymph nodes. it would help to find the proper lymph node for biopsy.