title: Reliability of MRI in measuring tongue tumour thickness: a 1.5T study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Tongue tumour thickness has been shown to have a correlation with neck nodal metastasis and hence patient survival. Current AJCC guidelines recommend inclusion of tongue tumour thickness measurement in routine radiologic staging. Several studies have attempted to define the accuracy of MRI in measuring tongue tumour thickness. The aim of our study was to compare tongue tumour thickness measured at T2-weighted and STIR sequences with histologic tongue tumour thickness.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty-eight consecutive patients of tongue cancer who had undergone glossectomy were selected retrospectively. Tumours were measured in both STIR axial and T2-weighted coronal images and compared with histologic tumour thickness on resected specimens. Pearson's analysis was performed to determine the degree of correlation. Paired samples t-test was also used for comparison of mean tumour thicknesses measured on MRI with mean histologic tumour thickness.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Pearson correlation analysis showed good correlation of tumour thickness measured on MRI with actual histologic tumour thickness (R=0.876).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  MRI provides a satisfactory prediction of tongue tumour thickness which in turn can be used todetermine the need for elective neck dissection in these patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre, Lahore, Pakistan. drusmanbashir@gmail.com
authors.forename: Usman
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Bashir
authors.forename: Muhammad Usman
authors.initials: MU
authors.lastname: Manzoor
authors.forename: Yasir
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Majeed
authors.forename: Rizwan Ullah
authors.initials: RU
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.forename: Usman
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Hassan
authors.forename: Ahmed
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Murtaza
authors.forename: Khurram
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Aftab
authors.forename: Syed Raza
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Hussain
authors.forename: Arif
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jamshed
authors.forename: Najam
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Uddin
authors.forename: Zia Salman
authors.initials: ZS
authors.lastname: Faruqui
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014062:Tongue Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D055815:Young Adult