Review article                                                                       

UDC: 616.428-006.6-073

doi:10.5633/amm.2013.0207

  

  

Application of imaging methods in the diagnostics of malignant neck lymph nodes

 

Slađana Petrović, Maja Jocić, Dragan Stojanov

 

University of Niš, Faculty of Medicine, Niš, Serbia⁴

 

The presence of malignant lymph nodes in the neck is a prognostic factor in planocellular carcinomas of the head and neck which are the most common primary tumors of this region. Determination of neck lymph nodes involvement is necessary for deciding on surgical treatment and planning chemotherapy and radiation therapy.

Metastases in the neck lymph nodes reduce patient survival to a half. Localization of metastatic lymph nodes, their number and size are also very important factors which correlate with distant metastases. Besides clinical examination which includes inspection and palpation of the neck, the diagnostics of metastatic neck lymph nodes also uses imaging techniques: ultrasound (US), computerized tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Precision and reliability of these methods depends on the application of adequate radiological criteria in the diagnostics of malignant lymph nodes of the neck. Acta Medica Medianae 2013;52(2):45-50.

 

            Key words: lymph nodes of the neck, tumors of the head and neck, US, CT, MRI, metastases