Abstract
As the benefits, limitations, and contraindications of transoral laser microsurgery (TLM) in glottic carcinoma treatments become better defined, pretreatment imaging has become more important to assess the case-specific suitability of TLM and to predict functional outcomes both for treatment consideration and patient counseling. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is the preferred modality to image such laryngeal tumors, even though imaging the larynx using MRI can be difficult. The first challenge is that there are no commercial radiofrequency (RF) coils that are specifically designed for imaging the larynx, and performance in terms of coverage and signal-to-noise ratio is compromised using general-purpose RF coils. Second, motion in the neck region induced by breathing, swallowing, and vessel pulsation can induce severe image artifacts, sometimes rendering the images unusable. In this paper, we design a dedicated RF coil array, which allows high quality high-resolution imaging of the larynx. In addition, we show that introducing respiratory-triggered acquisition improves the diagnostic quality of the images by minimizing breathing and swallowing artifacts. Together, these developments enable robust, essentially artifact-free images of the full larynx with an isotropic resolution of 1 mm to be acquired within a few minutes.
Highlights
As well as moderately advanced laryngeal cancers are both highly treatable conditions, with the main treatment options consisting of transoral laser microsurgery (TLM), open partial laryngectomy (OPL), and radiotherapy (RT)
Functional outcomes are better than after OPL [2] and, for early lesions, they are comparable to RT [3]
We report on our work to improve the robustness and performance of high resolution laryngeal Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
Summary
As well as moderately advanced laryngeal cancers are both highly treatable conditions, with the main treatment options consisting of transoral laser microsurgery (TLM), open partial laryngectomy (OPL), and radiotherapy (RT). Functional outcomes are better than after OPL [2] and, for early lesions, they are comparable to RT [3]. As TLM has evolved, and moderately advanced tumors are increasingly being treated, tumor extension to certain subsites within the larynx have been associated with a higher risk of recurrence after TLM [1].
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