Abstract
Specifications about the size and stiffness of healthy salivary glands with ultrasound (US) are not available for Asian people. Using a Toshiba Apolio 500 US platform, we determined the size (including anterior-posterior median length, median paramandibular depth dimension, and cranio-caudal height) and hardness of 100 healthy submandibular and parotid glands in volunteers without a history of disease affecting the salivary glands or post-radiation, and compared the dimensions to those of 36 parotid glands and 37 submandibular glands in post-irradiated patients. The dimensions of the parotid and submandibular glands were significantly correlated with body weight. However, the dimension of the parotid glands was not significantly correlated with that of patients with prior radiation; the shear wave velocity (SWV) significantly increased (1.99 m/s versus 2.43 m/s, p-value < 0.01). The dimension of the submandibular glands was significantly correlated with prior radiation, where the SWV also significantly increased (2.32 m/s versus 2.50 m/s, p-values < 0.01). We find that US is a useful tool for assessment of the reference dimensions and hardness of major salivary glands that may be altered by irradiation.
Highlights
An increasing number of head and neck (H&N) surgeons and otolaryngologists use ultrasound (US) to check patients’ necks
It is important to know the normal range of salivary gland size for reference because inflammatory disease and neoplastic condition would lead to enlargement of salivary glands, and chronic sclerosing sialoadenitis leads to atrophy of the glands[21]
This is the first study to measure both the dimensions and hardness of Asians; we found that the sizes of the parotid and submandibular glands are smaller than in a previous report with European subjects[8]
Summary
An increasing number of head and neck (H&N) surgeons and otolaryngologists use ultrasound (US) to check patients’ necks. It is easier to investigate the parotid and submandibular (SM) glands by US as a result of encapsulation than the sublingual and minor salivary glands. Other factors related to the size and function of salivary glands have been reported, such as diabetes[10], smoking[11], hypertension[12] and alcoholic beverage consumption[13]. The aim of this study is to clarify the ultrasonographic and elastographic biometry of major salivary glands and elucidate possible related factors for those glands. We used both ultrasound and elastography to compare glandular biometry of healthy individuals and individuals who had previously received radiation therapy
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