Objective: To investigate the application value of computed tomography (CT) examination of lymph node short diameter in evaluating cardia-left gastric lymph node metastasis in thoracic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Methods: A total of 477 patients with primary thoracic ESCC who underwent surgical treatment in the Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Zhengzhou University from January 2013 to December 2017 were collected. All of them underwent McKeown esophagectomy plus complete two-field or three-field lymph node dissection. Picture archiving and communication system were used to measure the largest cardia-left gastric lymph node short diameter in preoperative CT images. The postoperative pathological diagnosis results of cardia-left gastric lymph node were used as the gold standard. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to evaluate the efficacy of CT lymph node short diameter in detecting the metastasis of cardia-left gastric lymph node in thoracic ESCC, and determine the optimal cut-off value. Results: The median short diameter of the largest cardia-left gastric lymph node was 4.1 mm in 477 patients, and the largest cardia-left gastric lymph node short diameter was less than 3 mm in 155 cases (32.5%). Sixty-eight patients had cardia-left gastric lymph node metastases, of which 38 had paracardial node metastases and 41 had left gastric node metastases. The lymph node ratios of paracardial node and left gastric node were 4.0% (60/1 511) and 3.3% (62/1 887), respectively. ROC curve analysis showed that the area under the curve of CT lymph node short diameter for evaluating cardia-left gastric lymph node metastasis was 0.941 (95% CI: 0.904-0.977; P<0.05). The optimal cut-off value of CT examination of the cardia-left gastric lymph node short diameter was 6 mm, and the corresponding sensitivity, specificity and accuracy were 85.3%, 91.7%, and 90.8%, respectively. Conclusion: CT examination of lymph node short diameter can be a good evaluation of cardia-left gastric lymph node metastasis in thoracic ESCC, and the optimal cut-off value is 6 mm.
目的： 探讨CT检查淋巴结短径评估胸段食管鳞状细胞癌贲门旁和胃左动脉旁淋巴结转移的应用价值。 方法： 收集2013年1月至2017年12月在郑州大学附属肿瘤医院行手术治疗的原发性胸段食管鳞状细胞癌患者477例，均行McKeown食管癌切除术(经右胸游离食管+经上腹游离胃+颈部吻合)+完全二野淋巴结清扫或三野淋巴结清扫。应用影像归档和通信系统测量术前CT图像中最大贲门旁和胃左动脉旁淋巴结短径，以贲门旁和胃左动脉旁淋巴结术后病理诊断结果为金标准，采用受试者工作特征(ROC)曲线方法评估以CT检查淋巴结短径判断胸段食管鳞状细胞癌贲门旁和胃左动脉旁淋巴结转移的效能，并确定最佳界值。 结果： 477例患者最大贲门旁和胃左动脉旁淋巴结短径的中位数为4.1 mm，最大贲门旁和胃左动脉旁淋巴结短径<3 mm者155例(32.5%)。68例患者有贲门旁和胃左动脉旁淋巴结转移，其中38例有贲门旁淋巴结转移，41例有胃左动脉旁淋巴结转移。贲门旁淋巴结和胃左动脉旁淋巴结的转移度分别为4.0%(60/1 511)和3.3%(62/1 887)。ROC曲线分析显示，CT检查淋巴结短径评估贲门旁和胃左动脉旁淋巴结转移的曲线下面积为0.941(95% CI为0.904~0.977)，最佳界值为6 mm。以CT检查最大贲门旁和胃左动脉旁淋巴结短径≥6 mm作为标准判断胸段食管鳞状细胞癌贲门－胃左旁淋巴结转移的灵敏度、特异度和准确度分别为85.3%、91.7%和90.8%。 结论： 通过CT检查淋巴结短径可较好地评估胸段食管鳞状细胞癌贲门旁和胃左动脉旁淋巴结转移，最佳界值为6 mm。.
Keywords: Diagnosis; Esophageal neoplasms; Lymph node metastasis; Squamous cell carcinoma; X-ray computed tomography.