Abstract: Objective To assess the diagnostic value of ultrasound elastography（UE） for detecting malignant cervical lymph nodes. Methods A total of 96 patients with cervical lymph nodes were analyzed by UE and by conventional ultrasonography（US） involving two-dimensional ultrasonography and color Doppler flow imaging. An elastic method was used to evaluate the diagnostic value of UE. All malignant lymph nodes were confirmed by pathology，and the diagnostic performance of the two methods was compared. Results The sensitivity，specificity，accuracy，and positive and negative predictive values of US in diagnosing malignant cervical lymph nodes were，respectively，76.6%，81.3%，78.1%，89.1% and 63.4%.The corresponding values for UE were 90.6%，81.3%，87.5%，90.6% and 81.3%.UE showed higher accuracy than US for diagnosing malignant cervical lymph nodes.The diagnostic agreement rate of UE with surgical pathology was 0.540（P＜0.001），compared to 0.719（P＜0.001） for US.UE showed higher diagnostic consistency than US. Conclusion UE may be useful for diagnosing malignant cervical lymph nodes.

Key words: Elastography, Ultrasonography, Lymph node, Differential diagnosis