Diagnosis Of Facial And Cervical Lymphangioma Of Children By Color Doppler Ultrasonography

OBJECTIVE:Lymphangioma is characterized by dilated lymph channels.It presents commonly in the head and neck region with over 90% of lesions diagnosed before 2 years of age.Until recently, many kinds of image methods have been used for the diagnosis of lymphangiomas.Top of them is the ultrasonography (US) .This study was undertaken to analyse the sonographic characteristics and the hemodynamic changes of facial and cervical lymphangiomas.METHODS:Color Doppler flow image (CDFI) was performed in 32 cases to assess the extension, location and internal echo. CDFI also provided the informations about blood flow vasoularity of the lesion and blood surrounding tissues. All patients with surgically(12 cases) and needle aspiration biopsy pathologically(20 cases) had been proved lymphangioma .Follow-up clinical and ultrasonography examinations were performed to evaluate regression of the lesion .RESULTS:The accuracy rate of US was 96.9% .The error of determing was that cavernous lymphangioma was misdiagnosed as solid lesion . The specific sonogram of lymphangioma was well-defined cystis with several thin septa . The dense liquid always showed infection or hemorrhage . CDFI showed mottling blood supply in the septa . Regression was excellent in 5 patients who were treated with percutaneous sclerotherapy . The internal echo became hyper echo and liquid was less .CONCLUSIONS:CDFI can help establish the stage and structure of the lesion . The vascularity can be additionally assessed with the application of CDFI . Ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration is invaluable in indeterminate cases . So the unique characteristics of facial and cervical lymphangioma can be used in clinical practice for the diagnosis and differential diagnosis .