Real-time Imaging Of The Sentinel Lymph Nodes With CEUS In Swine’s Colon

Objective To observe the feasibility of CEUS (contrast-enhancedultrasound with SonoVue) in detecting sentinel lymphatic node(SLN) ofthe colon in swineMethods SonoVue of different doses were injected into the serosalayer and sub-mucosal layers of the colon of10swines successively.CEUSwas performed to observe changes of lymph vessels and SLN in realtime.Then1%Evans was injected at the same sites.The SLN detection rateand accuracy rate of CEUS were compared to those of conventionaldyeguided method.Results The images of the afferent lymph vessel and SLN of the colonwere clear after injecting0.5ml and1.0ml SonoVue.The internalstructure of SLN and the flow of SonoVue microbubbles could be observedwith CEUS.Compared with those of injecting0.5ml SonoVue,the enhancedtime of lymphatic and SLN as well asthe enhanced peaktime of SLN wereobviously reduced after injecting1.0ml SonoVue(all P<0.05).SLNmaintenance time between them had no statistical difference(P>0.05).TheSLN detection rate was100%and accuracy rate was95.65%(22/23)ofCEUS,and compared with those of blue dye method,no statistical difference was found(P>0.05).Conclusion The good imaging of SLN in swine’s colon can be obtainedwith CEUS.CEUS may be used as a new effective detecting method of SLNand has potential clinical application value.