PERITONSILLAR ABSCESS APPEARANCE ON INTRAORAL ULTRASONOGRAPHY

The ultrasound appearances of peritonsillar abscesses (PTA) in 15 pati ents with clinically suspected peritonsillar infection were assessed u sing intra-oral sonography and computed tomography (CT), The ultrasoni c appearances of an isoechoic rim with a hypoechoic centre were seen i n the majority of cases, but a homogeneous isoechoic pattern was also recognized, The different ultrasonic appearances did not correlate wit h the number of symptomatic days, A central hypoechoic area with a sur rounding isoechoic rim pattern was less likely if the volume of pus re lative to the whole abscess was less than 10% on CT, Although the perc entage of necrosis within the abscesses increased with time, the homog eneous isoechoic appearing abscesses, with less than 10% necrosis, did not fit in temporally and based on our findings it was not possible t o predict the ultrasound appearances according to the duration of symp toms.