JOURNAL CLUB: The Warthin Tumor Score: A Simple and Reliable Method to Distinguish Warthin Tumors From Pleomorphic Adenomas and Carcinomas

The objective of this article is to propose a Warthin tumor (WT) score to distinguish WTs from other parotid tumors.

The study included 78 patients with 92 histologically proven parotid tumors, including 42 WTs, 30 pleomorphic adenomas (PMAs), and 20 carcinomas. Echo-planar DW images were acquired. The WT score, which comprised the mean apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC_M) and the SD of the ADC (ADC_SD) of tumors, patient age, and patient sex, was used to predict WTs. The diagnostic performance of the WT score was evaluated using ROC analyses. Statistical significance was denoted by p < 0.05.

With the use of optimized criteria, including an ADC_M less than or equal to 1.016 × 10^-3 mm²/s (WT score, 1), an ADC_SD less than or equal to 0.1171 × 10^-3 mm²/s (WT score, 1), patient age older than 49 years (WT score, 1), and male sex (WT score, 1), a WT score greater than 2 had a sensitivity, specificity, positive negative value, negative predictive value, and accuracy of 85.7%, 100.0%, 100.0%, 89.3%, and 93.4%, respectively.

The WT score allows parotid WTs to be distinguished from PMAs and carcinomas with high accuracy.