NMR diagnostic vallue inassessing laryngeal tumor

Abstract

To evaluate diagnostic accuracy of pretreatment surgical magnetic resonance images (MRI) in assessment of patients with tumors of the larynx. The study included 12 patients, 11 men and 1 women, age 61,4 years. All patients underwent laryngeal endoscopy and biopsy followed by MRI. The biopsy confirmed that all patient had squamous-cell carcinoma. The MRI images were evaluated for presence in supraglottic, glottic or subglottic region, invasion of submucosal space, cartilage, extension to extralaryngeal tissue, presence of regional lymph nodes in regions I to VII. Imaging data were compared to surgical findings. In 11 patients (92%) the tumor was supraglottic and glotic region and in 1 (8%) subglottic. None of them had tumor only in one region. Paraglottic ivasion was seen in 9 (75%) and preepiglottic in 2 (50%) patients. Paraglottic and preepiglotic invasion in the same time was seen in 3 (25%) patients. 7 (58%) patients had normal vocal cord mobility, 3 (25%) mobility was unilateral and 2 (17%) had no vocal cord mobility. Cartilage invasion has not been seen in present study. All patients had billateral limphadenopathy region II-IV. Extension to extralaryngeal tissue was absent. These findings were confirmed on surgery with high diagnostic accuracy. MRI has been shown to be a reliable method for presurgical assessment of patients with tumor of the larynx.