Comparison of CT and MRI in Diagnosis of Laryngeal Carcinoma with Anterior Vocal Commissure Involvement

This study aimed to compare the accuracy of CT and MRI in determining the invasion of thyroid cartilage by and the T staging of laryngeal carcinoma with anterior vocal commissure (AVC) involvement. A total of 26 cases of laryngeal carcinomas with AVC involvement from May 2012 to January 2014 underwent enhanced CT and MRI scan, out of whom 6 patients also underwent diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging(DWI). T staging and thyroid cartilage involvement were evaluated. All the surgical specimens underwent serial section and were reviewed by two senior pathologists independently. When compared with pathologic staging, the accuracy was 88.46% (23/26) of MRI scan (with a 95% confidence interval 37~77%) and 57.69% (15/26) of CT scan (with a 95% confidence interval 70~98%), respectively (P < 0.01). We also reported three cases who were misdiagnosed on CT or MRI about either the thyroid cartilage was involved or not, and one case of preliminary study of DWI. Compared to CT, MRI exhibited a higher accuracy rate on T staging of laryngeal carcinomas with AVC involvement. Combined utility of CT and MRI could help improve the accuracy of assessment of thyroid cartilage involvement and T staging of laryngeal carcinomas with AVC involvement.