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Pre‐operative ultrasound with a 12–15 MHz linear probe reliably differentiates between melanoma thicker and thinner than 1 mm
Author(s) -
Mušič MM,
Hertl K,
Kadivec M,
Pavlović MD,
Hočevar M
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
journal of the european academy of dermatology and venereology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.655
H-Index - 107
eISSN - 1468-3083
pISSN - 0926-9959
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-3083.2010.03587.x
Subject(s) - medicine , ultrasound , melanoma , sentinel lymph node , biopsy , linear correlation , radiology , high frequency ultrasound , nuclear medicine , lymph node , pathology , cancer , statistics , mathematics , cancer research , breast cancer
Background Pre‐operative determination of primary melanoma thickness could be a tool to identify those patients who could be treated with radical primary tumour excision and sentinel lymph node biopsy in a single procedure. An excellent correlation between sonographic and histological measurement of maximal tumour thickness has been achieved using 20‐MHz transducers. Objective To show that widely available high resolution ultrasound with 12–15 MHz linear probe could also reliably assess the thickness of primary melanoma. Methods Sixty‐nine patients underwent ultrasound evaluation of 70 clinically and dermoscopically suspicious pigmented skin lesions before surgical excision. Results The sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values of ultrasound to detect melanoma > 1 mm were 92%, 92%, 95% and 81% respectively. The correlation between ultrasound and histological tumour thickness was very good [Pearson’s correlating index 0.823 ( P < 0.001)]. Mean difference between sonographic and histological measurements was 0.045 mm with limits of agreement estimated at −1.4 and +1.49, and a bias between two methods 45 μm. Conclusion Ultrasound examination with a 12–15 MHz linear transducer can reliably differentiate primary melanoma > 1 mm from those ≤ 1 mm.