Liver Ultrasound Imaging Clinical Applications

PurposeTo (a)observe the characteristics of the benign and malignant focal liver lesions by using contrast-enhanced ultrasound; (b)assess the value of contrast-enhanced ultrasound to reveal differences between the benign and malignant focal liver lesions. Material and methodsOne hundred and three patients with a total of 103 focal liver lesions were prospectively evaluated with real-time harmonic ultrasonographic imaging using the microbubble contrast agent SonoVue under a low mechanical index. A diagnostic score of 1 to 5 was given to each lesion before and after contrast injection and the diagnosis value was compared with ROC curve for differentiation between the benign and malignant focal liver lesions. ResultsFifty-seven malignant lesions (hepatocellular carcinoma, n=32; metastasis, n=21; intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, n=3; lymphoma, n=1) and 46 benign lesions (focal nodular hyperplasia, n=3; hemangioma, n=22; adenoma, n=2; regenerative cirrhotic nodule, n=7; focal inflammatory lesion, n=5; focal hyposteatosis and skip area of fatty liver, n=6; multisepta cyst, n=1) were diagnosed in the study. Ninety-eight percent of the 57 patients with malignant liver lesion had diffuse or ring-like contrast enhancement in the arterial phase and it had sensitivity of 98. 2%, specificity of 82. 6%, a positive predictive value of 87. 5%, and a negative predictive value of 97.4%. In contrast, 82.5% of the patient with...