Impedance-based detection of cervical lymph-node involvement in thyroid cancer patients: a human model study.

[PURPOSE] Current diagnostic modalities for differentiating between benign and malignant cervical lymph nodes in patients with thyroid cancer are imprecise and time-consuming. The real-time intraoperative detection of malignancy in suspicious lesions could improve the medical management of these patients. This human study was undertaken to evaluate a precise, newly developed Electrical Lymph-Node Scanning (ELS) system to facilitate the effective treatment of cervical LNs in thyroid cancer patients.

[METHODS] Using the ELS, we examined a collective 109 radiologically suspicious lymph nodes from 36 patients after dissection and compared the ELS results with the histopathological findings.

[RESULTS] A total of 27 involved lymph nodes were correctly diagnosed, while 75 reactive or free lymph nodes were correctly identified as uninvolved lymph nodes by ELS (as 3 false negatives and 4 false positives) with total sensitivity and specificity of 90% and 94.9%, respectively. The corresponding negative and positive predictive values were 87.1% and 96.2%, respectively.

[CONCLUSIONS] Results from this clinical study demonstrate the value of the ELS as a surgical assist adjunct for differentiating equivocal lesions during neck dissection surgery for patients with different types of thyroid cancer.