Efficiency of ultrasound and ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration cytology in preoperative assessment of axillary lymph node metastases in breast cancer.

Purpose: We performed this study to detect preoperative axillary metastases with ultrasound (US)-guided fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB), to eliminate the need for time-consuming and costly sentinel lymph node (SLN) scintigraphy and biopsy steps in the treatment of breast cancer patients, and in that of with suspicious US findings, and to evaluate the accuracy of preoperative US-guided FNAB for patients with suspicious lymph node metastases on US.

Methods: Patients with a suspicious breast lump or histopathologically proven breast cancer underwent breast-axillary US. Increase in lymph node size, cortical thickening, non-hilar cortical flow, and hilar changes were evaluated with gray scale-color Doppler US.

Contrast-enhanced MR angiography of benign regenerative nodules following TIPS shunt procedure in Budd-Chiari syndrome.

In this report we describe the magnetic resonance (MR) angiographic features of benign hepatic nodules that developed in a patient with Budd-Chiari syndrome, and present the distinguishing features of benign regenerative nodules from hepatocellular cancer. In a 27-year-old woman with chronic Budd-Chiari syndrome, previously non-existing benign nodules developed in the liver parenchyma during the 10-month period following transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic (TIPS) shunt placement. The liver had been examined with gray-scale and Doppler sonography in addition to the MR imaging and MR angiography.