ULTRASONOGRAPHIC TEXTURE CHARACTERIZATION OF SALIVARY AND NECK MASSESUSING 2-DIMENSIONAL GRAY-SCALE CLUSTERING

Objectives: To evaluate the clinical usefulness of texture analysis in ultrasonography (US) of head and neck masses. Methods: Sixty-one case s with salivary or neck masses were examined by US with a linear 7.5MH z array. Images were digitized and quantitatively evaluated by two-dim ensional gray-scale clustering using two texture indices, M and SD, as measures of coarseness and homogeneity respectively. Results: Coarsen ess of Warthin's tumors was significantly higher than that of the othe r salivary tumors. Malignant lymphomas had finer texture values than o ther lymph node lesions. Conclusions: Quantitative texture analysis ap pears to be a useful complement in diagnostic US.