RELIABILITY OF MRI IN MEASURING TONGUE TUMOUR THICKNESS: A 1.5T STUDY

Authors

  • Usman Bashir
  • Muhammad Usman Manzoor
  • Yasir Majeed
  • Rizwan Ullah Khan
  • Usman Hassan
  • Ahmed Murtaza
  • Khurram Aftab
  • Syed Raza Hussain
  • Arif Jamshed
  • Najam Uddin
  • Zia Salman Faruqui

Abstract

Background: Tongue tumour thickness has been shown to have a correlation with neck nodalmetastasis and hence patient survival. Current AJCC guidelines recommend inclusion of tongue tumourthickness measurement in routine radiologic staging. Several studies have attempted to define theaccuracy of MRI in measuring tongue tumour thickness. The aim of our study was to compare tonguetumour thickness measured at T2-weighted and STIR sequences with histologic tongue tumourthickness. Methods: Twenty-eight consecutive patients of tongue cancer who had undergoneglossectomy were selected retrospectively. Tumours were measured in both STIR axial and T2-weighted coronal images and compared with histologic tumour thickness on resected specimens.Pearson’s analysis was performed to determine the degree of correlation. Paired samples t-test was alsoused for comparison of mean tumour thicknesses measured on MRI with mean histologic tumourthickness. Results: Pearson correlation analysis showed good correlation of tumour thickness measuredon MRI with actual histologic tumour thickness (R=0.876). Conclusion: MRI provides a satisfactoryprediction of tongue tumour thickness which in turn can be used to determine the need for elective neckdissection in these patients.Keywords: Lymphatic Metastasis, Magnetic Resonance Imaging/methods, Tongue Neoplasms

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Published

2011-09-01

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