Non-isotopic Imaging

Ultrasound (US), computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have become the cornerstone of the management of cervical lumps. They assist in the diagnosis, the sampling, and for the surveillance after treatments. Dividing the neck into separate anatomic compartments helps to provide limited lists of possible diagnoses. This can be refined by analyzing the specific imaging pattern of masses, their usual frequency and also clinical factors such as the age and sex of the patient, or a smoking habit, for instance. Although it is constantly improving, it is rare that a definite diagnosis can be made with imaging. Thus, guiding a fine-needle aspiration (FNA) or core-needle biopsy (CNB) is usually the next step and purpose of radiological techniques. The correlation between imaging techniques and cytology/histology results is key to providing the most specific possible diagnosis and to decide whether surgery is indicated or not.