Ultrasound evaluation of pelvic nodes in cervical carcinoma

This is a retrospective analysis to assess the utility of ultrasound in assessing pelvic nodes in patients with cervical carcinoma. Seventy five patients who underwent radical hysterectomy with lymph node dissection in a three year period were included in the study and the pre-operative ultrasound findings were compared with the final pathological nodal status. Ultrasound examination had a sensitivity of 66.67%, a specificity of 78.33% and an accuracy of 76%. The positive predictive value was 43.5% and the negative predictive value was 90.4%. The sensitivity and positive predictive value are likely to be higher in more advanced stages of the disease where operative staging is rarely performed. Ultrasound can be a fairly accurate non invasive diagnostic test to assess the pelvic nodes besides assessing the local extent of the disease, the kidneys and the retroperitoneum.