Skip to main content

Laryngeal ultrasound as effective as CT scans for the diagnosis of various laryngeal lesions

En

Abstract

Background

Different methods have been used in the past for the diagnosis of many laryngeal diseases. Ultrasound has become a very important, widely used diagnostic tool for head and neck diseases.

Objectives

The aim of this study was to evaluate laryngeal ultrasound as an alternative to computed tomography (CT) scans in the diagnosis of different laryngeal diseases.

Study design and methods

This was a comparative cross-sectional study that was carried out between April 2010 and December 2011 in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Zagazig University Hospitals, Egypt. The study comprised two groups of patients: the control group (12 patients) and the study group (54 patients). Individuals of the control group who were undergoing neck ultrasound for thyroid swelling were subjected to laryngeal ultrasound only, whereas patients of the study group were subjected to both laryngeal ultrasound and CT scans of the neck.

Results

Laryngeal ultrasound was found to be effective in detecting vocal cord nodules in 27.3% of patients, polyps and cysts in all patients, Reinke’s oedema in 60% of patients and laryngeal masses in 78.6% of patients. These results were comparable with those of the CT scans.

Conclusion

Laryngeal ultrasound is considered of great value in diagnosing different laryngeal lesions and can be used as an alternative to or complementary to CT scans.

Level of evidence

The level of evidence is 3a.

References

  1. Morgado PF, Abrahão M. Angled telescopic surgery, an approach for laryngeal diagnosis and surgery without suspension. Sao Paulo Med J. 1999; 117: 224–226.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Shao J, Stern J, Wang Z-M, Hanson D, Jiang J. Clinical evaluation of 70π and 90π laryngeal telescopes. Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2002; 128: 941–944.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Hartnick CJ, Zeitels SM. Pediatric video laryngo-stroboscopy. Int J Pediatr Otorhinolaryngol. 2005; 69: 215–219.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Wolf M, Primov-Fever A, Amir O, Jedwab D. The feasibility of rigid stroboscopy in children. Int J Pediatr Otorhinolaryngol. 2005; 69: 1077–1079.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Arens C, Glanz H. Endoscopic high-frequency ultrasound of the larynx. Eur Arch Otrhinolaryngol. 1999; 256: 316–322.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Arens C, Eistert B, Glanz H, Waas W. Endolaryngeal high-frequency ultrasound. Eur Arch Otrhinolaryngol. 1998; 255: 250–255.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Wendy D. Laryngeal ultrasound provides non invasive assessment of vocal fold lesions. Ann Otol Rhinol Laryngol. 2007; 171: 631–647.

    Google Scholar 

  8. Wang LM, Chen QH, Zhang YX, Fang YQ, Wang ZC, Zhu Q. Laryngeal juvenile xanthogranuloma: imaging finding. Int J Pediatr Otorhinolaryngol. 2010; 74: 949–951.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Hertz CH, Lindström K, Sonesson B. Ultrasonic recording of the vibrating vocal folds. A preliminary report. Acta Otolaryngol. 1970; 69: 223–230.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Holmer NG, Kitzing P, Lindstrom K. Echo glottography. Ultrasonic recording of vocal fold vibrations in preparations of human larynges. Acta Otolaryngol. 1973; 75: 454–463.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Raghavendra BN, Horii SC, Reede DL, Rumancik WM, Persky M, Bergeron T. Sonographic anatomy of the larynx, with particular reference to the vocal cords. J Ultrasound Med. 1987; 6: 225–230.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Huang C-C, Sun L, Dailey SH, Wang S-H, Shung KK. High frequency ultrasonic characterization of human vocal fold tissue. J Acoust Soc Am. 2007; 122: 1827–1832.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Sirikci A, Karatas E, Durucu C, Baglam T, Bayazit Y, Ozkur A, et al. Noninvasive assessment of benign lesions of vocal folds by means of ultrasonography. Ann Otol Rhinol Laryngol. 2007; 116: 827–831.

    Google Scholar 

  14. Rubin JS, Lee S, McGuinness J, Hore I, Hill D, Berger L. The potential role of ultrasound in differentiating solid and cystic swellings of the true vocal fold. J Voice. 2004; 18: 231–235.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Garel C, Contencin P, Polonovski JM, Hassan M, Narcy P. Laryngeal ultrasonography in infants and children: a new way of investigating. Normal and pathological findings. Int J Pediatr Otorhinolaryngol. 1992; 23: 107–115.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Garel C, Legrand I, Elmaleh M, Contencin Ph, Hassan M. Laryngeal ultrasonography in infants and children: anatomical correlation with fetal preparations. Pediat Radiol. 1990; 20: 241–244.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Youssefzadeh S, Steiner E, Gritzmann N, Kursten R, Franz P. Sonography of laryngeal cysts. Rofo Fortschr Geb Rontgenstr Neuen Bildgeb Verfahr. 1993; 159: 38–42.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Khalil T, Madian Y, Farid A. High resolution laryngeal ultrasound for diagnosis of vocal cord lesions. Egypt J Ear Nose Throat Allied Sci. 2010; 11: 64–68.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Hu Q, Zhu SY, Zhang Z, Luo F, Mao YP, Guan XH. Assessment of glottic squamous cell carcinoma: comparison of sonography and non-contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging. J Ultrasound Med. 2011; 30: 1467–1474.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Wail F. Nasr.

Additional information

Conflicts of interest

There are no conflicts of interest.

Rights and permissions

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Nasr, W.F., Amer, H.S., Askar, S.M. et al. Laryngeal ultrasound as effective as CT scans for the diagnosis of various laryngeal lesions. Egypt J Otolaryngol 29, 93–98 (2013). https://doi.org/10.7123/01.EJO.0000426360.69695.f1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.7123/01.EJO.0000426360.69695.f1

Keywords