A-117 Pitfalls in neck imaging

F.A. Pameijer | Friday, March 8, 10:30 – 12:00 / Room C

Pitfall: “a hidden or unexpected danger or difficulty”. Imaging methods can provide an extraordinary amount of useful data to specialists treating head and neck (cancer) patients. It is crucial that these data are used to full advantage of individual patients. The most important factor in this process is mutual cooperation between the physicians in charge of patient care and the diagnostic imaging specialist. Pitfalls in the head and neck may present in various ways: normal variants may look like disease, incidental findings are frequently encountered, suboptimal technique may obscure important findings. Moreover, many pitfalls are directly related to technical errors. In this potential ‘minefield’, the post-treatment patient presents a major challenge to the imaging specialist. Ablative surgery usually results in distortion of the anatomy, especially when combined with flap reconstruction. When adequate preoperative and/or baseline postoperative imaging is lacking, determination of recurrence on a single postoperative examination may well be impossible. PET CT (MR) and advanced MR-techniques; e.g. Diffusion Weighted Imaging (DWI) or Dynamic Contrast Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging (DCE-MRI) can be helpful in this setting. The presentation aims to familiarize general radiologists, who have an interest in head and neck imaging, with common pitfalls encountered on CT and MR studies focussing on the neck. Both the pre-therapeutic, as well as the post-treatment setting, will be discussed using examples from daily practice.

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