More articles from Head & Neck

The second interscalar ridge notch angle and depth were measured on MR imaging in normal ears by a single experienced neuroradiologist. The images of normal ears were then randomly mixed with images of ears with incomplete partition II malformation for 2 novice evaluators to measure both the second interscalar ridge notch angle and depth in a blinded manner. For the mixed group, interobserver agreement was calculated, normal and abnormal ear measurements were compared, and receiver operating characteristic curves were generated. The 94 normal ears had a mean second interscalar ridge angle of 80.86° and depth of 0.54mm with the 98th percentile for an angle of 101° and a depth of 0.3 mm. In the mixed group, agreement between the 2 readers was excellent, with significant differences found between normal and incomplete partition type II ears for angle and depth on average. The authors conclude that a measured angle of >114° and a depth of the second interscalar ridge notch of ≤0.31 mm suggest the diagnosis of incomplete partition type II malformation and scalacommunis.

The authors analyzed 1.5T MRI examinations of 100 consecutive patients treated with radiation therapy with or without additional surgery for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. MRI examinations included morphologic sequences and DWI. Histology and follow-up served as the standard of reference. Two readers, blinded to clinical/histologic/ follow-up data, evaluated images according to clearly defined criteria for the diagnosis of recurrent head and neck squamous cell carcinoma/second primary head and neck squamous cell carcinoma occurring after treatment, post-radiation therapy inflammatory edema, and late fibrosis. They conclude that adding precise morphologic MRI criteria to quantitative DWI enables reproducible and accurate detection of recurrent head and neck squamous cell carcinoma/second primary head and neck squamous cell carcinoma occurring after treatment.