Ultrasonic evaluation of salivary glands.

Diagnostic ultrasound was used to study 40 patients undergoing excision of a major salivary gland for various disease entities. Findings were as follows: Malignant lesions showed low reflectivity and attenuation with poorly outlined or diffuse borders. Inflammation demonstrated high reflectivity and attentuation with diffuse borders. Echographic patterns from mixed tumors showed either high or medium to low reflectivity; all demonstrated low to medium attenuation and were well outlined. It appears that various diseases of the major salivary glands have different echographic patterns. An attempt to correlate the echographic patterns with the histology of the disease process was made.