[Experiences with using the ultrasound contrast medium levovist in differentiation of cervical lymphomas with color-coded duplex ultrasound].

AIM: Proof of intranodal vessels in lymph nodes of the head and neck region and their association to specific types of vascularisation enables categorization of lymph nodes and improves preoperative predictability of tissue dignity. In many lymph nodes imaged by colour duplex sonography no intranodal vascularisation can be found. The purpose of the study was to find out if sonographic categorisation of lymph nodes, which do not show intranodal vessels in normal colour duplex sonography, is enabled with the contrast amplifier Levovist.
METHOD: In 30 patients with metastasis in lymph nodes, malignant lymphomas or inflammatory lymph nodes with no or poor intranodal vascularisation, we administered Levovist, a contrast amplifier given intravenously, during colour duplex sonography.
RESULTS: Intranodal vascularisation could be visualized in all cases by the use of Levovist contrast amplifier during the sonographic investigation.
CONCLUSION: Use of the contrast amplifier Levovist leads to an improvement of the categorisation of lymph nodes. Especially inflammatory lymph nodes show more intranodal vessels in the hilus area, whereas metastatic lymph node vessels show no link to the hilus area. Preoperative diagnostic procedures may take advantage of this new technique.