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Table 4 Sensitivity and specificity of conventional ultrasound, Doppler and sonoelastography for the assessment of axillary LNs including conjunctive and disjunctive combinations (95% confidence intervals in brackets)

From: Real-time ultrasound elastography in 180 axillary lymph nodes: elasticity distribution in healthy lymph nodes and prediction of breast cancer metastases

Prediction of LN status

Sensitivity

Specificity

B-Mode-US: Cortex >3mm

40.0

96.8

 

(17.5-67.1)

(92.5-98.8)

Doppler-US: Pathologic vessels

14.3

95.6

 

(2.5-43.9)

(90.8-98.1)

Clinical examination: Palpable LNs

13.3

88.4

 

(2.3-41.6)

(82.3-92.7)

Elastogram: Cortex ″blue″

60.0

79.6

 

(32.9-82.5)

(72.2-85.5)

Disjunctive combination: Cortex >3mm or ″blue″ in the elastogram

73.3

77.5

 

(44.8-91.1)

(69.8-83.7)

Conjunctive combination: Cortex >3mm and ″blue″ in the elastogram

26.7

99.3

 

(8.9-55.2)

(95.8-100.0)