Quantitative assessment of intratumoral perfusion in hepatocellular carcinomas by contrast-enhanced ultrasonography with GAMMA curve fitting technique

Objective To investigate the value of contrast-enhanced ultrasonography with GAMMA curve fitting technique on the quantitative assessment of intratumoral perfusion in patients with primary hepatic carcinomas. Methods Thirty five patients with hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC) confirmed by pathology were enrolled in the study. Contrast-enhanced ultrasonography were performed one week preoperatively. The new quantitative software with GAMMA fitting technique was used to analyze the dynamic images with DICOM format. The validity of the fitting curves was evaluated by goodness of fitting index (GOF). Through the new software, we acquired the time-intensity curve (TIC) and got some quantitative parameters: increased intensity (a1), decent curvature (a2), up slope rate (a3), time to peak (TTP), peak intensity (PI), and arrival time (AT). Results All the GOFs of fitting curves were more than 0.90. Compared with the liver parenchyma, the curves of tumor ascended and descended quickly with short TTP and AT. There were significant differences of these quantitative parameters between tumor and liver parenchyma (P0.05). Conclusion The quantitative software with GAMMA fitting technique could reflect the hemadynamics of HCC objectively and accurately. It might provide a quantitative basis in the diagnosis of liver neoplasms and hemadynamic research.