ArticleCancer imaging : the official publication of the International Cancer Imaging Society2022
Normal size of benign upper neck nodes on MRI: parotid, submandibular, occipital, facial, retroauricular and level IIb nodal groups.
Article in Cancer imaging : the official publication of the International Cancer Imaging Society, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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4 citing papers in PubMed, 10 citations in OpenAlex.
- Head-to-head pathologic validation of Node-RADS vs size-based criteria for cervical lymph node metastasis in nasopharyngeal carcinoma.European radiology · 2026Article
- MRI Detection of Unknown Primary Tumours in the Head and Neck: What Is the Expected Normal Asymmetry in the Size of the Palatine Tonsils?Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Article
- Radiomics from dual-energy CT-derived iodine maps predict lymph node metastasis in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.La Radiologia medica · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
purposeNodal size is an important imaging criterion for differentiating benign from malignant nodes in the head and neck cancer staging. This study evaluated the size of normal nodes in less well-documented nodal groups in the upper head and neck on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
methodsAnalysis was performed on 289 upper head and neck MRIs of patients without head and neck cancer. The short axial diameters (SAD) of the largest node in the parotid, submandibular, occipital, facial, retroauricular and Level IIb of the upper internal jugular nodal groups were documented and compared to the commonly used threshold of ≥ 10 mm for diagnosis of a malignant node.
resultsNormal nodes in the parotid, occipital, retroauricular and Level IIb groups were small with a mean SAD ranging from 3.8 to 4.4 mm, nodes in the submandibular group were larger with a mean SAD of 5.5 mm and facial nodes were not identified. A size ≥ 10 mm was found in 0.8% of submandibular nodes. Less than 10% of the other nodal group had a SAD of ≥ 6 mm and none of them had a SAD ≥ 8 mm.
conclusionTo identify malignant neck nodes in these groups there is scope to reduce the size threshold of ≥ 10 mm to improve sensitivity without substantial loss of specificity.
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