Table 3.
Associations Between Node-Specific Features and Incidence of Miss-Detection by Radioisotope and Blue Dye, Respectively
| Variable | Overall (n=2382) | SLNs Detected by Radioisotope (n=1984) | SLNs Missed by Radioisotope (n=398) | p-value | SLNs Detected by Blue Dye (n=1641) | SLNs Missed by Blue Dye (n=741) | p-value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Size of lymph node (mean ± SD) (mm) | 10.68 ± 7.34 | 11.16 ± 7.47 | 8.28 ± 6.11 | <0.001* | 11.41 ± 7.72 | 9.02 ± 6.07 | <0.001* |
| Involvement of lymph node | 0.014* | <0.001* | |||||
| Negative | 2003 (84.1%) | 1652 (83.3%) | 351 (86.9%) | 1347 (82.1%) | 656 (88.5%) | ||
| Positive | 379 (15.9%) | 332 (16.7%) | 47 (13.1%) | 294 (17.9%) | 85 (11.5%) | ||
| Location of lymph node | 0.337 | <0.001* | |||||
| Level I | 2169 (91.1%) | 1803 (90.9%) | 366 (92.0%) | 1548 (94.3%) | 621 (83.8%) | ||
| Level II~IIIa | 197 (8.3%) | 169 (8.5%) | 28 (7.0%) | 81 (4.9%) | 116 (15.7%) | ||
| Injection site | 0.241 | ||||||
| Tumor site | 1941 (81.5%) | 1305 (79.5%) | 636 (85.8%) | ||||
| Periareolar | 55 (2.3%) | 40 (2.4%) | 15 (2.0%) | ||||
| Tumor site and periareolar | 52 (2.2%) | 40 (2.4%) | 12 (1.6%) |
Notes: aOnly one SLN of level III was detected; *p<0.05.
Abbreviations: SD, standard deviation; SLNs, sentinel lymph nodes.