Role of Apparent Diffusion Coefficient in Characterisation of Neck Masses- A Cross-sectional Study (original) (raw)

Introduction: Neck masses are frequently encountered in clinical practice and differential diagnoses of a patient presenting with a neck mass is wide. Diffusion-Weighted Magnetic Resonance Imaging (DW-MRI) is an imaging technique based on molecular diffusion. It is a very helpful complementary technique in distinguishing neoplastic from non neoplastic tissue and has numerous applications in the evaluation of head and neck masses especially in head and neck lymphadenopathy. Aim: To evaluate the accuracy of Apparent Diffusion Coefficient (ADC) in differentiating benign and malignant neck masses. Materials and Methods: A single-centre cross-sectional study comprising of 50 patients of all age groups with clinical suspicion of neck swelling was conducted in Department of Radiodiagnosis at Sri Guru Ram Das Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Amritsar, Punjab, India from March 2018 to February 2020. All patients included were subjected to general physical and detailed local examin...