ULTRASONOGRAPHY IS MORE EFFECTIVE THAN COMPUTED-TOMOGRAPHY IN EXCLUDING INVASION OF THE CAROTID WALL BY CERVICAL LYMPHADENOPATHIES

Twelve patients with head and neck cancer, bulky lymphadenopathies, an d clinical suspicion of carotid artery infiltration, had preoperative CT and US. The results of both techniques were correlated with surgica l findings (one case of invasion and 11 of non-invasion), to evaluate the role of CT and US in the preoperative diagnosis of tumor invasion of the carotid wall. While CT showed a high level of failures (11 fals e positives and one true positive), US (one true positive, one false n egative, and 10 true negatives) appears to be an easy and helpful meth od for predicting non-invasion of the carotid wall. However, the usefu lness of US in detecting invasion cannot be evaluated, due to the limi ted number of positive cases.