Usefulness of ultrasonography in assessment of laryngeal carcinoma

Abstract

To evaluate the usefulness of ultrasonography in assessing laryngeal cancer. 72 patients with laryngeal carcinoma proven by surgery and pathology were enrolled. The pre-therapeutic ultrasonography and CT images were retrospectively evaluated, including tumour detection, localisation and invasion of intra- and extralaryngeal structures. A comparative assessment was made between the detection rate, correspondence rate of localisation and sensitivity and specificity of ultrasonography and CT. The mobility of the larynx was observed on real-time ultrasonography and compared with laryngoscopy. The detection rate of ultrasonography [63 (87.5%)/72] was lower than that of CT [72 (100.0%)/72] (p=0.006). The primary foci were accurately located in 59 (93.7%) of 63 lesions using ultrasonography compared with 70 (97.2%) of 72 lesions using CT (p=0.392). In the evaluation of invasion, the sensitivity and specificity of ultrasonography were similar to that of CT in most of the intra- and extralaryngeal structures (p=0.059-1.000). A higher specificity was obtained during the assessment of the paraglottic space involvement when using ultrasonography than CT (94.9% vs 66.7%, p=0.001). For vocal cord fixation, no statistical difference was found between ultrasonography and laryngoscopy (p=0.223). Ultrasonography could be used as a valuable supplementary imaging method to CT and laryngoscopy in the assessment of laryngeal carcinoma, even in male adults with some calcifications of the thyroid cartilage. Our study demonstrates that ultrasonography, which has been used scarcely in the larynx, could supply useful information on the detection, localisation and intra- and extralaryngeal invasion of laryngeal carcinoma.