[Neoplastic invasion of laryngeal cartilage: diagnosis by computed tomography]

The diagnostic of the laryngeal cartilage neoplastic invasion plays an important role in the accurate staging of the laryngeal carcinoma and its treatment. To evaluate the accuracy of the CT diagnosing cartilage involvement, the present study is reported. 127 patients with carcinoma of the larynx and hipopharynx T3-T4, surgical treated between 1993 and 1997 at Ciudad Sanitaria y Universitaria de Bellvitge, are retrospectively studied. TC presents an a accuracy of 78%, a specificity of 91% and a sensitivity of 54% in the diagnostic of laryngeal cartilage invasion of the laryngeal and hipopharyngeal carcinoma.