Assessment of carotid artery invasion by lymph node metastasis from squamous cell carcinoma of aero-digestive tract

Carotid involvement by metastatic lymph nodes changes the approach in head and neck tumors. AIM: To evaluate interobserver agreement by CT scan analysis regarding the involvement of the carotid artery by metastatic lymph nodes from squamous cell carcinoma of the upper aerodigestive tract and its relation to resection criteria. Materials and METHODS: retrospective study of 99 CT images of patients with SCC were evaluated. Eighty-six were males and 13 females, with ages ranging from 32 to 76 years. Four radiologists, without any previous knowledge of the clinical stage, analyzed imaging results. No patients had received previous treatment and histological diagnoses were obtained through biopsy. The carotid artery invasion was classified as simple (0 to 50% and from to 100%), and complex (0 to 25%; 26 to 50%; 51 to 75% and 76 to 100%). The level of interobserver agreement was obtained through Kappa Index (p&8804; 0, 05) and the concordance power varied from despicable to excellent. RESULTS: The Kappa Index were moderate (0, 53%) for simple classification and minimum (0, 36%) for complex classification. CONCLUSIONS: The computed tomography showed low effectiveness in the evaluation of lymph node metastasis resection concerning carotid artery invasion.