Ultrasound of soft tissues in the neck and salivary glands

Ultrasound (ultrasound) is a technique for examining the body with ultrasound waves. It has found wide distribution in medicine, due to its safety and high level of informativeness. To diagnose the pathological processes developing in the salivary glands, as well as in the neck, ultrasound of soft tissues is almost the most common method. Moreover, many diseases can be identified at the early stages of their development.

The neck ultrasound is indicated in the following situations:

• The presence of palpable formation in the cervical region;
• The emergence of suspicions of the development of the pathological process in the carotid arteries, which is most often detected on the basis of symptoms of insufficient blood flow in them, as well as gross noise during auscultation of these vessels.

It should be noted that in the second case, ultrasound of soft tissues in the neck is an additional method of diagnosis. To clarify the diagnosis in any case will have to carry out dopplerography of the carotid arteries.

As a result of the ultrasonic examination in the cervical region, it is possible to identify both focal and diffuse pathological changes with sufficient ease and a high degree of operativeness:

Focal:

• Nodal (solid) formations (they are the most common finding after conducting such a diagnosis, with most of them being adenomatous changes in the thyroid gland, the risk of malignancy is quite low);
• Cysts (true cystic formations are rare, they are diagnosed if they have a clear, even outline with an anechoic cavity (except in cases where a hemorrhage has occurred in the cyst cavity));
• Abscesses and hemorrhages (with US most often look like echogenic formations with fuzzy contours and anechogenous cavity inside if there is no hemorrhage);
• Calcifications (these hyperechoic structures are most often characteristic of adenomas of the thyroid gland, however, can serve as a sign and malignant formations).

Diffuse:

• An increase in the thyroid gland in size while maintaining a uniform echostructure;
• An increase in the thyroid gland in size with the determination of the heterogeneity of the echostructure.

The first variant of diffuse changes speaks in favor of such diseases as endemic goiter, pubertal hyperplasia, thyrotoxicosis, post-resection vicar hyperplasia of the thyroid gland. In the second case, it is possible to suspect the development of multinodular goiter or autoimmune thyroiditis.

Carrying out of such diagnostic procedure as US of salivary glands becomes really rational only in the event that there is at least one of the following symptoms:

• Increase in the size of submandibular and parotid salivary glands under the condition of a simultaneous increase in body temperature;
• The presence of palpable formations in the submandibular, parotid and / or sublingual region;
• Presence of pain, discomfort and / or swelling in the submandibular, parotid and / or sublingual areas.

The ultrasound of soft tissues in the salivary glands area allows revealing the following pathological processes:

• Cysts;
• Abscesses;
• Benign and malignant tumors;
• Narrowing or widening of gland ducts;
• Sialadenosis;
• Sialodenite;
• Sialoliths.

Conducted in the early period, ultrasound of soft tissue often allows you to identify the disease at the earliest stages of development and take rational measures for its treatment, which significantly increases the patient's chances of recovery.