None of the lymph nodes showed US aspects that warranted additional diagnostic procedures
other than follow-up controls. The following US features of the lymph nodes were evaluated: quantity and dimensions; aspects of the outline; homogeneity and thickness of the cortex, recording any extroflexion of the outline; aspects of the hilus, in particular, disorganization; color-power Doppler patterns of the vascularization. We also recorded additional clinical data, in particular, the presence of diabetes mellitus, recent moderate loco-regional blunt traumas, habitual epilation of the lower limbs or pubic regions, and sports activities leading to frequent traumatic events. All data were recorded in a database (Microsoft Windows Excel, Microsoft Corp. Redmond, WA, USA), installed on Selleckchem NVP-BSK805 a standard compatible IBM computer. For the statistical analysis, we calculated FG-4592 datasheet the Spearman r index and performed unpaired Student’s t test; the level of significance was p < 0.05. The data are expressed as the mean ± standard deviation. The statistical analyses were performed using GraphPad Prism 5 software
(GraphPad Software, Inc., La Jolla, CA – USA). Results A total of 730 lymph nodes were observed, for a mean of 5.88 ± 2.009 per station and individual patient (range: 1-12). These data do not agree with the results of an anatomical study (8) in which the mean number of superficial and deep lymph nodes dissected at autopsy was 13.60 per side (range 5 -17). Regarding
the size of the lymph nodes, the length of the major axis was as follows: < 10 mm for 168 lymph Selleckchem ZD1839 nodes, 10-20 mm for 490 lymph nodes, and > 20 mm for 72 lymph nodes; the latter represented 9.86% of all lymph nodes. The mean size of the largest lymph node in each patient in terms of the length of the major axis was 19.73 mm ± 6.294. Anatomically, the normal dimensions in terms of the maximum transverse diameter are usually between 1 and 2 cm [8]. According to a relatively recent study [9], which, however, used 10 MHz linear probes, most of the normal lymph nodes (181 out of 205) in the inguinal area had a maximum transverse diameter of 8 mm. The Spearman r index was 0.347 (p < 0.0001) for the statistical association between the number of lymph nodes per patient and age and 0.317 (p = 0.0003) for the association between the size of the largest lymph node and age (Figures 1 and 2); this finding is discussed in-depth below. Figure 1 Correlation between the size of the largest lymph node and age. Spearman r 0.3172; 95% confidence interval 0.1440 to 0.4715; P value (two-tailed) 0.0003; P value summary ***. Figure 2 Correlation between the size of the major lymph node diameter and age. Spearman r 0.3475; 95% confidence interval 0.1772 to 0.4975; P value (two-tailed) <0.0001; P value summary ****. The mean cortical thickness was 1.277 ± 0.