SHEAR WAVE ELASTOGRAPHY TO EVALUATE THE EFFECT OF RADIOTHERAPY FOR NASOPHARYNGEAL CARCINOMA ON THE STERNOCLEIDOMASTOID MUSCLE

Qin Yu, Cai Hu, Li Chen#

Department of Ultrasonography, First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang, China

Objective: To investigate the value of Shear Wave Elastography (SWE) in evaluating the the effect of sternocleidomastoid muscle(SCM) after radiotherapy for nasopharyngeal carcinoma(NPC), and to observe the changes of conventional ultrasound and elasticity before, during and after radiotherapy.

Methods: 40 patients with NPC confirmed by pathology were selected. All patients performed ultrasound examination before radiotherapy (S0), 4 weeks after radiotherapy (S1), 6 weeks after radiotherapy (S2), 3 months after radiotherapy (S3), and 6 months after radiotherapy (S4), the texture and internal echo of the muscle fibers of the SCM were observed by conventional ultrasound (US), and the young's modulus values were measured by SWE, and the differences between the five groups were compared.

Results: Compared with S0, S1, S2, S3 and S4, there were statistically significant differences between muscle fiber texture and internal echo (P<0.05); The young's modulus values of S0, S1, S2, S3 and S4 were statistically different (P<0.05); There was no statistically significant difference between left and right young's modulus values of SCM at different radiotherapy stages (P>0.05).

Conclusion:  SWE can be used to evaluate the changes of sternocleidomastoid fibrosis before and after radiotherapy, is valuable for clinical judgment and follow-up.