Aim: To evaluate the accuracy of ultrasmall paramagnetic iron oxide (USPIO: Sinerem)-enhanced MRI in patients with head and neck cancer and enlarged lymph nodes compared with current staging examinations using histology as a gold standard.

Patients And Methods: Seventeen patients with a histologically proven squamous cell cancer of the head and neck (SCCHN) and different N-stages underwent a non-enhanced and a USPIO-enhanced MRI examination. Signal intensity (SI) was measured in a region of interest evaluation. Pathohistological examination was used as a reference.

Results: On a patient basis, USPIO-enhanced MRI showed a higher specificity and diagnostic accuracy (94%) compared with non-enhanced MRI (53%). One patient showed a lymph node of 6 mm in the short axial diameter which was suggested as being metastatic in Sinerem-enhanced MRI according to the enhancement pattern of Sinerem. This patient was staged as N1 with Sinerem-enhanced MRI. The histopathological examination did not confirm the Sinerem-enhanced MRI result.

Conclusion: The high values for the specifity and diagnostic accuracy of Sinerem- enhanced MRI justifies further investigations with this contrast agent. USPIO-enhanced MRI could be advantageous in avoiding surgical overtreatment.

Download full-text PDF

Source

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

sinerem-enhanced mri
16
head neck
12
uspio-enhanced mri
12
mri
9
iron oxide
8
lymph nodes
8
diagnostic accuracy
8
oxide particle-enhanced
4
particle-enhanced magnetic
4
magnetic resonance
4

Similar Publications

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!