title: Endoscopic ultrasound: Elastographic lymph node evaluation.
abstract: Different imaging techniques can bring different information which will contribute to the final diagnosis and further management of the patients. Even from the time of Hippocrates, palpation has been used in order to detect and characterize a body mass. The so-called virtual palpation has now become a reality due to elastography, which is a recently developed technique. Elastography has already been proving its added value as a complementary imaging method, helpful to better characterize and differentiate between benign and malignant masses. The current applications of elastography in lymph nodes (LNs) assessment by endoscopic ultrasonography will be further discussed in this paper, with a review of the literature and future perspectives.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Caritas-Krankenhaus, Uhlandstr, Bad Mergentheim, Germany.
authors.forename: Christoph F
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Dietrich
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jenssen
authors.forename: Paolo G
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: Arcidiacono
authors.forename: Xin-Wu
authors.initials: XW
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Giovannini
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hocke
authors.forename: Julio
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Iglesias-Garcia
authors.forename: Adrian
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Saftoiu
authors.forename: Siyu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Liliana
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chiorean