Abstract
Clinical application of Gray-scale ultrasound for the diagnosis of neck swellings with the exception of thyroid and salivary gland lesions is discussed. Thirty-two cases of neck swellings were examined, which include: 7 cases of inflammatory diseases, a castleman lymphoma, 3 cervical cysts, a ectopic thymic cyst, 2 epidermoid cysts, 2 hemangiomas, 2 lipomas, 2 neurogenic tumors, 5 malignant cervical tumors, and 7 cases of metastatic lymph nodes, in which invasion to the carotid artery were strongly suspected. We conclude: 1) Gray-scale ultrasound is successfull in diagnosing the swelling in any case of neck lesion. 2) Malignant tumors may exhibit the characteristic ultrasound patterns of benign tumor and inflammatory lesion. 3) As the carotid artery is a easily recognizable landmark with ultrasound, vascular invasion of metastatic tumors, more than 7mm in diameter, can be easily identified by examining the location and the shape of the carotid artery.
