Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine whether CT perfusion was valuable in differentiating benign tumors from malignant ones in the parotid gland.
Methods: Fifty-three parotid gland tumors, 35 benign and 18 malignant, in 51 patients were included in this study. All the tumors were confirmed histopathologically and examined with CT perfusion before operations. The parameters of CT perfusion, including blood flow (BF: ml x 100g(-1) x min(-1)), blood volume (BV: ml x 100g(-1)), mean transmit time (MTT:s) and permeability surface (PS: ml x 100g(-1) x min(-1)) were evaluated. Wilcoxon sign sum test, a nonparameters test for paired data were used to determine the statistical differences of parameters between the benign and malignant tumors.
Results: The mean values +/- standard variations of BF, BV, MTT and PS were 139.85+/-175.13, 17.16+/-15.67, 13.27+/-4.42, and 24.38+/-14.52 respectively in benign tumors, versus 231.69+/-205.29, 32.22+/-20.56, 11.40+/-3.95 and 38.28+/-19.00 respectively in malignant tumors. Except for MTT, the differences of BF, BV and PS between benign and malignant tumors were statistically significant (P<0.01).
Conclusions: On the basis of the results of this study, the parameters of CT perfusion, BF, BV and PS, were valuable in differentiating benign and malignant tumors of the parotid gland.