Potential of sonography in diagnosis of tongue tumors

Purpose of the study. An analysis of sonography potential in the primary diagnosis and clinical staging of tongue cancer.Patients and methods. The study included 18 patients aged 40–70 years with tongue tumors. The majority accounted males – 14 (77.7 %). Women were represented by 4 (22.2 %) examinees. Ultrasound examinations were performed using expert-class ultrasound systems with broadband linear multifrequency transducers. Transoral examination with linear transducers required tumor location in the anterior and lateral parts of the oral tongue. During ultrasound examinations we evaluated: tumor shape, tumor invasion depth; tumor sizes – width and thickness; tumor echogenicity and structure; tumor vascularization in Doppler modes. The results were compared with the data of histological examination.Results. Transoral ultrasound examination of patients with tongue cancer allows clear visualization of the tumor and assessment of it’s spread. The study showed that the round shape of tongue tumors prevailed in 13 (72.2 %) patients, the tumor echo structure in 10 (55.5 %) was heterogeneous, the contours were even and clear in the majority of patients – 13 (72.2 %), all tumors showed a reduced acoustic density, the depth of invasion ranged from 2 to 6 mm in 8 (44.4 %) patients and exceeded 6 mm in 6 (33.3 %) patients, which corresponded to stages III and IV of the diseas. Doppler ultrasonography recorded intense intratumoral blood flow in 100 % of cases. In 8 (44.4 %) cases, metastatic lesions of the cervical lymph nodes were observed.Conclusion. Transoral ultrasound diagnosis of tongue cancer is a highly informative, safe and modern method providing surgeons with information that helps in choosing the scope of surgical treatment and in determining the disease prognosis at the preoperative stage. The accuracy of the method was 87 %, the sensitivity was 85 %, and the specificity was 86.2 %.