Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound Appearance Of Colonic Malignant Tumors And The Correlation With Microvascular Density

ObjectivesTo investigate the enhancement appearance of colonic malignant tumors with contrast-enhanced ultrasound(CEUS),and to analyze the correlation between the parameters of time-intensity curve(TIC) and microvascular density(MVD).MethodsFrom August 2008 to April 2009,19 patients with colonic tumors were examined by CEUS before operation, The equipment was GE-LOGIQ9 with 2-4MHz abdominal transducer. The contrast agent was SonoVue producted by Italy Bracco company. SonoVue was injected as a bolus of 2.4ml by cubital vein. The enhancement appearance and parameters of TIC were analyzed to get the arrival time(AT),time to peak(TTP),ascending slope rate(ASR),arrival to peak time(ATP),peak intensity (PI),absolute enhanced intensity and area under curve of arrival to peak time(AUC of ATP) for the lesions and adjacent bowel wall, respectively. The lesions were histopatholo-gical exanimated with CD34 markers to evaluate MVD. The correlation between the parameters of TIC and MVD were analyzed. All statistical analysis was performed by SPSS13.0 statistical. A P-value<0.05 was considered to be statistically significant.ResultsNineteen patients were proved malignant by histopathology after operation, including small cell B cell lymphoma 1, Malignant fibrous histiocytoma complicated by lung metastasis and liver metastasis 1, the other 17 were colonic adenocarcinoma, among of the 17 cases, one complicated by liver and lymph node metastasis, two complicated by lymph node metastasis. In CEUS, all lesions were enhanced,18 of 19 lesions showed fast enhancement, and showed hype-enhancement mainly.Comparing tumor and adjacent bowel wall of tumor, TTP were (24.4±6.4)s and (31.3±7.6)s, absolute enhanced intensity were (11.5±2.9)dB and (6.1±2.3)dB, respectively. There have statistical significance between the two groups in above parameters (p<0.05, p<0.01, respectively).On TIC,16 of 19 leisions showed quick-up and quick-down,2 lesions showed quick-up and slow-down, and 1 tumor appeared double peak.The MVD of lesions was(29.1±8.3), PI,AUC of ATP were correlated positively to MVD (r=0.80, p<0.01; r=0.74, p＜0.01)ConclutionThe PI and the AUC of ATP were correlated to MVD in colonic malignant tumor. The parameters of TIC can evaluate angiogenesis of tumors before operation.