Color duplex sonography in post-therapeutic neck evaluation

PURPOSE: Assessment of the clinical utility of color duplex sonography for post-therapeutic evaluation of the neck. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Eighty neck sides were evaluated in a prospective nonrandomized study during the post-therapeutic course. Of these, 74 previously had undergone surgery, and 60 subsequently had additional radiotherapy. The diagnostic procedures applied were clinical examination, computed tomography, positron emission tomography, and color duplex sonography. The mean observation period was 18.6 months. RESULTS: Seven of 80 (8.75%) neck sides exhibited recurrent disease, and 76.2% of the lymph nodes resected during the postoperative observation period showed malignancy. Color duplex echography could detect all lymph nodes. Sensitivity was 100%, and the specificity was 95.8%. The sensitivity and specificity of computed tomography and positron emission tomography were found to be 85.7% and 97.2%, respectively. Palpation had a sufficient specificity (95.8%) but only a very poor 14.2% sensitivity in the post-therapeutic neck. CONCLUSION: In complex tissue alterations of the post-therapeutic neck, color duplex echography is a highly sensitive and easily applied diagnostic procedure for the detection of recurrent disease. It allows a high-resolution depiction of intranodal vascularization and adjacent structures. Problems may occur in the evaluation of vessels in nodes with a diameter of 6 millimeters and below. This may impair specificity in some cases.