Rationale for creating a new classification for evaluation superficial lymph nodes US NODE-RADS (Russian version) based on ultrasound data: the consensus of experts of the Russian Association of Ultrasound Diagnostics in Medicine

Abstract

The article presents the most informative ultrasound (US) signs of unchanged, "reactive," lymphoproliferative and metastatic lymph nodes (LN). A literature analysis was conducted on the stratification of US-signs of malignancy of the LN, on the basis of which it was concluded that at present time there is no single classification of US-signs of pathological changes in the LN, existing classifications have been developed to assess the LN in some regions, include from 3 to 5 categories and are not used everywhere. Due to certain difficulties in interpreting the nature of the LN lesions associated with their localization, size, number, severity of response to the infectious process and presence of oncological history of the patient, it is justified to create a unified classification of US signs of the LN changes employing 6 categories that is similar to previously accepted classifications of radiation diagnostics TI-RADS, BI-RADS. For a wide discussion by experts, it is proposed a draft classification Node-RADS for stratification US-signs of surface LN.