ObjectiveTo investigate the clinical value of contrast-enhanced ultrasound guided fine-needle aspiration biopsy for enlarged cervical lymph nodes.Methods Image data of 400 patients with enlarged cervical lymph nodes underwentultrasound guided fine-needle biopsy in our hospital were collected and retrospectively analyzed. Among them

CEUS wasperformed for 200 patients before puncture（CEUS-guided group）

another 200 patients underwent conventional ultrasoundexamination and puncture（conventional ultrasound-guided group）

and the success rate of obtaining lymph nodule tissues and theaccuracy of histopathological diagnosis between the two groups were calculted and compared.The lymph node diameter was furthersubdivided

the rate of successful sample taken and pathological diagnosis accuracy of patients with diameters<1.5 cm

1.5～2.2 cm and >2.2 cm were calculated and compared.ResultsThe success rate and accuracy of pathological diagnosis in the CEUS-guided group were 90.5% and 91.0%

respectively

which were higher than those in the conventional ultrasound-guided group（80.0% and 77.0%）.The differences were statistically significan（tboth P<0.05）.For lymph nodes with a diameter of 1.5～2.2 cm

therate of successful sample taken and pathological diagnosis accuracy of the CEUS-guided group were 100% and 95.3%

respectively

which were significantly higher than those of the conventional ultrasound-guided group（86.8% and 74.6%

both P<0.05）.ConclusionContrast-enhanced ultrasound can improve the success rate of puncture and pathological diagnosis in the fine needleaspiration of cervical enlarged lymph nodes

especially for clinical application of enlarged lymph nodes with a diameter of 1.5～2.2 cm.UltrasonographyContrast agentCervical lymph nodesBiopsyClinical value