title: Starry sky sign: A prevalent sonographic finding in mediastinal tuberculous lymph nodes.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We report a prevalent finding in tuberculous lymphadenitis (TL): Starry sky sign, hyperechoic foci without acoustic shadows over a hypoechoic background.
  
  
  METHODS
  We retrospectively searched the database for a possible relationship of starry sky sign with a specific diagnosis and also the prevalence and accuracy of the finding.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Starry sky sign was found in 16 of 31 tuberculous lymph nodes, while none of other lymph nodes (1,015 lymph nodes) exhibited this finding; giving a sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), and accuracy of 51.6%, 100%, 100%, 98.5%, and 98.5%, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Bacteriologic and histologic findings are gold standard in the diagnosis of tuberculosis, but this finding may guide the bronchoscopist in choosing the more pathologic node within a station and increase the diagnostic yield as it may relate to actively dividing mycobacteria.
authors.affiliation: Chest Physician, Lung Transplantation Center, Turkiye Yuksek Ihtisas Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Ibrahim Onur
authors.initials: IO
authors.lastname: Alici
authors.forename: Nilg N Yilmaz
authors.initials: NN
authors.lastname: Demirci
authors.forename: Aydin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yilmaz
authors.forename: Jale
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Karakaya
authors.forename: Yurdanur
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Erdogan