Advance in MR imaging for evaluation of postradiotherapy salivary function in patients with head and neck cancer / 中国癌症杂志

ABSTRACT

Salivary gland damage with subsequent xerostomia has been an unavoidable complication in most head and neck cancer patients after radiotherapy.However,there were many shortcomings of each current detecting technique.Magnetic resonance sialography(MRS) and diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging(DW MRI) ,as two of the most important progresses in the latest MRI techniques,with the virtue of non-invasion and non-ionizing radiation,has been rapidly developed in salivary function assessment in recent years,and it has kept on improving technically.This article mainly reviewed the clinical applications and research advances of these two MRI technologies in post-radiotherapy salivary function assessment in patients with head and neck cancers,so as to provide reference for further study.