[The sonoelastography of major salivary glands in chosen pathological conditions].

INTRODUCTION

Sonoelastography is a novel technique useful in noninvasive assessment of tissue elasticity. This method was found to date to be useful in noninvasive differentiation of benign and malignant lesions of multiple organs: thyroid gland, liver, prostate and breast. Elastograms were scored upon conventional subjective color scale and the detailed stiffness values in kPa were collected.

THE AIM OF THE STUDY: was to examine usefulness of sonoelastography in assessment of salivary glands lesions. Material and Methods the group consisted of 99 patients treated in Department of Otolaryngology. 52 patients after radiotherapy for head and neck cancer, 4 treated for inflammatory disease - 2 Sjoegren syndrome, 2 acute sialoadenitis and 43 consecutive patients with parotid tumors. The control group constituted 54 healthy volunteers.

RESULTS

the mean stiffness value in 10 malignant tumors was 146.6 kPa and 88.7 kPa in 33 benign, the mean stiffness value of glandular parenchyma after radiotherapy was 43.18 kPa and in inflammatory disease 63.66 kPa. Mean elasticity of reference glandular tissue was 24.23 kPa.

CONCLUSIONS

sonoelastography is fast, repetitive, noninvasive and objective method and it is useful in assessment of salivary glands lesions.