Conflicting evidence exists regarding the importance of routine abdominal ultrasound (US) with hepatic and splenic fine needle aspiration (FNA) cytology during staging of canine mast cell tumours (MCT). The objective of this study was to correlate ultrasonographic and cytologic findings in dogs with strictly defined high‐risk MCTs and to determine the influence on outcome. Our hypothesis was that US poorly predicts visceral metastasis in high‐risk MCTs and that early metastasis is associated with improved outcome when compared to overt metastasis. US of liver and spleen correlated to cytologic results, categorized as no metastasis, early metastasis or overt metastasis. Of 82 dogs prospectively enrolled, 18% had early visceral metastasis and 7% had overt metastasis on cytology; 67% with visceral metastasis had regional LN metastasis. US was a poor predictor of metastasis with sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value for the spleen of 67%, 68%, 21% and 94%, respectively and for the liver of 29%, 93%, 56% and 82%, respectively. Median time to progression (TTP) for dogs with no metastasis, early metastasis and overt metastasis was not reached, 305 and 69 days, respectively (P < .001). Median survival time (MST) for the 3 groups were not reached, 322 and 81 days, respectively (P < .001). High Patnaik or Kiupel grade, early metastasis, overt metastasis and adequate local control were significantly associated with outcome. Early visceral metastasis was associated with poorer outcome compared to dogs without metastasis, however, a subset of dogs experienced long‐term control.

中文翻译：

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超声对肥大细胞瘤高发犬早期或明显的肝脏或脾脏转移预测不佳。

关于在犬肥大细胞肿瘤（MCT）分期中常规腹部超声（US）以及肝和脾细针穿刺（FNA）细胞学检查的重要性存在矛盾的证据。这项研究的目的是将严格定义的高风险MCT的狗的超声检查和细胞学检查结果相关联，并确定对结果的影响。我们的假设是，美国对高危MCT的内脏转移预测不佳，与明显转移相比，早期转移与预后改善相关。肝和脾的超声与细胞学结果相关，分类为无转移，早期转移或明显转移。在预期入组的82只狗中，有18％发生内脏早期转移，有7％的细胞学上存在明显转移。内脏转移的67％有局部LN转移。US是转移的不良预测指标，脾脏的敏感性，特异性，阳性预测值和阴性预测值分别为67％，68％，21％和94％，肝脏为29％，93％，56％和49％。分别为82％。没有转移的狗的中位进展时间（TTP）分别为305天和69天（早期转移和明显转移）（P  <.001）。3组的中位生存时间（MST）分别为322天和81天（P  <.001）。较高的Patnaik或Kiupel分级，早期转移，明显转移和适当的局部控制与结局显着相关。与没有转移的狗相比，早期内脏转移与较差的结果相关，但是，一部分狗经历了长期控制。