Cervical lymph nodes with or without metastases from oral squamous carcinoma: a correlation of MRI findings and histopathologic architecture.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to describe the magnetic resonance images (MRIs) of the architecture of metastatic lymph nodes as well as healthy lymph nodes and to correlate the images with the histopathologic architecture of the lymph nodes from oral squamous cell carcinoma.

Study Design: The signal intensities of 98 cervical lymph nodes from 20 patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma were evaluated on T2-weighted and diffusion-weighted whole-body imaging with background body signal suppression (DWIBS). The MRI findings were compared with the histopathologic architecture.