Echographic characteristics of malignant lymph nodes.

We retrospectively reviewed the sonograms of 42 sequential patients for whom there was sonographic evidence of malignant lymphadenopathy. Twenty-three patients were known to have lymphoma, whereas 19 patients had lymph nodes involved with metastases. Each case was categorized according to the sonographic "texture" of the masses and the extent of sound transmission. Sonolucent masses were observed in 83% of the lymphoma cases and in 53% of patients with soft-tissue tumors. Nonetheless, a mixture of patterns was observed in nearly one-third of the cases. In 5 lymphoma patients there were enlarged lymph nodes that had all of the echographic qualities of simple cysts. Aside from this pattern, no correlation could be made between sonographic pattern and histologic diagnosis.