Breast cancer is the most common type of
cancer in women. The 5-year survival rate in patients with
breast cancer ranges from 74 to 82 %. Sentinel lymph node biopsy has become an alternative to axillary
lymph node dissection for nodal staging. We evaluated the detection of the sentinel lymph node and
metastasis of the lymph node using contrast enhanced ultrasonography with
Sonazoid. Between December 2013 and May 2014, 32 patients with operable
breast cancer were enrolled in this study. We evaluated the detection of axillary sentinel lymph nodes and the evaluation of axillary lymph nodes
metastasis using contrast enhanced computed tomography, color Doppler ultrasonography and contrast enhanced ultrasonography with
Sonazoid. All the sentinel lymph nodes were identified, and the sentinel lymph nodes detected by contrast enhanced ultrasonography with
Sonazoid corresponded with those detected by computed tomography lymphography and
indigo carmine method. The detection of
metastasis based on contrast enhanced computed tomography were sensitivity 20.0 %, specificity 88.2 %, PPV 60.0 %, NPV 55.6 %, accuracy 56.3 %. Based on color Doppler ultrasonography, the results were sensitivity 36.4 %, specificity 95.2 %, PPV 80.0 %, NPV 74.1 %, accuracy 75.0 %. Based on contrast enhanced ultrasonography with
Sonazoid, the results were sensitivity 81.8 %, specificity 95.2 %, PPV 90.0 %, NPV 90.9 %, accuracy 90.6 %. The results suggested that contrast enhanced ultrasonography with
Sonazoid was the most accurate among the evaluations of these modalities. In the future, we believe that our method would take the place of conventional sentinel lymph node biopsy for an axillary staging method.