Abstract
CT scan has been widely utilized recently to assess mediastinal lymph node metastasis of lung cancer. However, it has become obvious that there are occasional discrepancies between CT findings and operative or histological findings. We investigated CT images in 50 patients with lung cancer comparing operative findings with the histology of the mediastinal lymph node. As far as superior mediastinal (#1) to paraaortic (#6) lymph nodes are concerned, their enlargement was accurately predicted by CT scan, but it was less sensititive to the involvement of subcarinal (#7) lymph node, which had a false-positive rate of 18% and false negative of 16%. Paraesophageal (#8) to hilar (#10) lymph node enlargement was difficult to diagnose. Histologically demonstrated lymph node metastasis was frequently found in lymph nodes estimated to be greater than 10 mm in diameter on CT scan.
