Nasopharyngeal carcinoma MRI

Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1] Associate Editor(s)-in-Chief: Homa Najafi, M.D.[2]Faizan Sheraz, M.D. [3]

Head and neck MRI may be helpful in the diagnosis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma. It is especially used for the assessment of tumor invasion in the skull base, parapharyngeal spcae, paranasal sinus, middle ear and cervical lymph nodes.

MRI may be helpful in the diagnosis of Nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

• Findings on MRI scan suggestive of nasopharyngeal carcinoma include:^[1]

• The protocol for routine MRI of a nasopharyngeal mass includes:^{[2][3][4][5][6]}
  • Unenhanced T1- weighted axial and sagittal plane images for:
    • Detection of skull base invasion
  • T2-weighted fast spin-echo sequence in axial plane images for:
    • Evaluation of early parapharyngeal tumor spread
    • Invasion to the paranasal sinus
    • Effusions of the middle ear
    • Detection of cervical lymph nodes.
  • Contrast-enhanced T1-weighted axial and coronal planes images (with and without fat suppression) for:
  • Evaluation of tumor extension to the perineural and intracranial space.
• Additional MRI component:^[7][8][9]
  • Diffusion-weighted imaging for:
    • Differentiating NPC from lymphoma
    • Characterizing of cervical lymphadenopathy
  • MRI spectroscopy for:
    • Differentiating of the NPC and metastatic nodes from normal neck muscle.

Template:WikiDoc Sources