Application of two dimensional and color Doppler ultrasound in diagnosis of the maxillofacial space infection / 实用口腔医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective: To evaluate the application of two-dimension and color Doppler ultrasound in diagnosis and differential diagnosis of fascial space infection in maxillofacial region. Methods: Retrospective analysis was conducted on 87 cases of maxillofacial space infections, among which there were 6 suspected cases of accompanying tumor.Results: In the 87 cases, 53 had abscess formation, confirmed by operative drainage or puncture biopsy. The pathological studies revealed 2 cases of Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and 1 case of branchial cleft cyst accompanied with infection. The 3 cases showed characteristic appearance in ultrasonic imaging. The space infection presented stronger echogenicity than that in tumors. In this study, 95% (83/87) cases showed grey or medium echogenic dots, while 4.5% (4/87) cases did not show obvious echogenic dots due to a large amount of abscess, and 2 cases of tumors, however, did not show any echogenic dots. In addition, 87% (76/87) cases had few blood flow in the lesion areas, and 22% (2/87) cases had much blood flow in the lesion areas. All cases showed that the lesion areas and the blood flow reduced obviously with enhanced echo following anti-inflammatory treatment except 2 cases accompanied with tumor without obvious changes in lesion areas and blood flow.Conclusion: The ultrasonic diagnosis with two dimension and color Doppler ultrasound has high accuracy in diagnosis of maxillofacial space infection, with accordance rate up to 96.6%, much higer than CT/MRI. It is suggested that the two dimension and color Doppler ultrasound can be used as a prior choice of diagnosis.