More articles from Head and Neck Imaging

The authors analyzed 1.5T MRI examinations of 100 consecutive patients treated with radiation therapy with or without additional surgery for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. MRI examinations included morphologic sequences and DWI. Histology and follow-up served as the standard of reference. Two readers, blinded to clinical/histologic/ follow-up data, evaluated images according to clearly defined criteria for the diagnosis of recurrent head and neck squamous cell carcinoma/second primary head and neck squamous cell carcinoma occurring after treatment, post-radiation therapy inflammatory edema, and late fibrosis. They conclude that adding precise morphologic MRI criteria to quantitative DWI enables reproducible and accurate detection of recurrent head and neck squamous cell carcinoma/second primary head and neck squamous cell carcinoma occurring after treatment.

One hundred thirty-one patients with histologically proved solid sinonasal lesions (56 benign and 75 malignant) who underwent conventional DWI and intravoxel incoherent motion were evaluated. The diffusion coefficient (D), pseudodiffusion coefficient (D*), and perfusion fraction (f) values derived from intravoxel incoherent motion and ADC values derived from conventional DWI were measured and compared. The mean ADC and D values were significantly lower in malignant sinonasal lesions than in benign sinonasal lesions and the mean f value was higher in malignant than in benign lesions. Multiparametric models can significantly improve the cross-validated areas under the curve for the differentiation of sinonasal lesions compared with single-parametric models. The authors conclude that intravoxel incoherent motion appears to be a more effective MR imaging technique than conventional DWI in the differentiation of benign and malignant sinonasal lesions.