Efficiency of three-dimensional Doppler ultrasonography in assessing nodal metastasis of head and neck cancer

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess the clinical usefulness of three-dimensional (3D) color Doppler ultrasonography with a novel predictive model in the detection of cervical metastasis of untreated head and neck squamous cell carcinoma patients. We assessed cervical lymph node metastasis in 52 head and neck squamous cell carcinoma patients by 3D color Doppler ultrasonography, magnetic resonance imaging, and [(18)F] fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography with computed tomography. Pathologic analysis was used as the gold standard for evaluation of these imaging modalities. The rate of correct N staging was 84.6% on ultrasonography, 55.8% on magnetic resonance imaging, and 71.2% on positron emission tomography/computed tomography. On a level-by-level basis, the ultrasonography had 78.9% sensitivity, 99.0% specificity, 93.8% positive predictive value, 96.0% negative predictive value, and 95.7% accuracy. It also showed the highest agreement to histology results as compared with magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography/computed tomography (kappa value = 0.832, 0.506, and 0.537, respectively). 3D Doppler ultrasonography with our prediction model provides a rapid, low-cost, noninvasive, and reliable method with low inter-observation variations for detecting neck metastasis of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma patients.

Virtual evaluation of selected cervical lymph nodes with three‐dimensional ultrasound in thyroid cancer patients after thyroidectomy

“…Ahuja et al reported poor agreement in the assessment of vascular patterns. 26 Lai et al evaluated the accuracy of 3D ultrasound in nodal staging of head and neck cancer and reported 92.6% accuracy. 25 However, these studies did not compare the performance of 2D and 3D ultrasound in differentiating benign and malignant LNs, nor did they report sensitivity or specificity.…”

“…Hong et al showed a sensitivity and specificity of 78.9% and 99%, higher than MRI or PET/CT. 26 Lai et al evaluated the accuracy of 3D ultrasound in nodal staging of head and neck cancer and reported 92.6% accuracy. 27 Zhou et al reported 3D ultrasound to be more accurate in the evaluation of LN vascularity, yielded a higher sensitivity than 2D ultrasound alone in differentiating benign and malignant LNs in head and neck cancer (95% vs 81%).…”

Application of Ultrasound-guided Core Needle Biopsy in the Diagnosis of T3 or T4 Stage Laryngeal and Hypopharyngeal Cancer

“…Nevertheless, attempts have been made to use ultrasonography in this area. Ultrasonography has been used to evaluate laryngeal tumors in a few studies since the 1970's and some of these have proved that ultrasonography can assist in tumor staging in patients with advanced laryngeal cancer (1,(6)(7)(8). With the application of a wide band and high frequency ultrasonic probe, ultrasound can clearly show the main structures of laryngeal cartilage, ligament, muscle, pre-epiglottic space and para-glottic space for their superficial location and, to a certain extent, the sound transmission of laryngeal cartilage.…”

“…The occupying solid tumor displaces the throat cavity and infiltrates and destroys the thyroid cartilage. It provides a favorable condition for ultrasound imaging (6,7). The high resolution ultrasound for laryngeal imaging has the advantage of real-time, dynamic, multi-plane, as well as multi-directional, imaging, which limits MRI and CT imaging (8).…”

“…It has been reported that CT-guided biopsy achieves satisfactory results (13). However, it is not real-time dynamic monitoring and patients have to receive more X-ray irradiation (1,7,(14)(15)(16). Some have reported that three-dimensional Doppler ultrasound imaging has a high diagnostic value for laryngeal and hypopharyngeal cancer.…”