الفهرس 
introduction and aim of the workOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Tumors of the upper aerodigestive tract can spread to a large degree underneath normal appearing mucosa so clinical assessment alone could not detect the deep extension which is best evaluated by CT or MRI. Detailed assessment of tumors of the upper aerodigestive tract especially the malignant is essential to allow proper pretherapeutic staging of tumors and ensure appropriate therapy. The main issues that must be achieved when evaluating imaging studies obtained in patients with lesions of the upper aerodigestive tract include detection of tumor location, imaging characteristics and precise assessment of tumor extension. Included in this study are one hundred and two patients, 75 males and 27 females with their ages ranging from 4 nionths to 75 years old. All patients were evaluated by complete clinical examination, CT for 79 patients, MRI for 84 patients, angiography for 5 patients and barium swallow for 3 patients. Patients were classified according to the site of tumor origin into:- Nasopharyngeal lesions : 30 patients. Oropharyngeal lesions: 11 patients.Oral cavity lesions: 9 patients.Lesions of the PPS and related compartments: 15 patients. Hypopharyngeal tumors: 12 patients. Laryngeal tumors: 25 patients. Nasopharyngeal Tumor: Both CT and MR can provide the essential information in staging of nasopharyngeal malignancy. The decisive advantage of . MR over CT lies in its excellent soft tissue contrast. Although delineation of tumors from adipose tissue is equally good on CT and MR where The spine echo images are superior to all other MR sequences-differentiation of musculature from tumor is more better seen on MR. Among plain MR imaging sequences, T2Wls are the most useful for detecting tumor and delineating it from musculature.