Objective: To assess the clinical value of multislice spiral CT (MSCT) in diagnosis of thyroid papillary cancer (PTC) with cervical lymph node metastases.
Methods: The preoperative MSCT examination findings of 38 PTC patients undergoing functional neck dissection were retrospectively analyzed， and were also compared with the results of pathological diagnosis after surgery.
Results: In the 38 patients， the positive rate of lymph node metastasis by MSCT examination was 84.2% (32/38)， and most of the lymph node metastatic lesions had characteristic imaging changes. The central cervical lymph nodes had the maximum metastatic rate that reached 52.6% (20/38)， but the small lymph node metastases were difficult to be detected by MSCT in this region， which was responsible for the six false-negative cases.
Conclusions: MSCT has high accuracy in diagnosis of PTC with cervical lymph node metastases. Routine central neck dissection is recommended for PTC patients undergoing primary surgery.