Role of contrast-enhanced color Doppler ultrasonography in diagnosis of focal hepatic lesions

Objective To investigate the diagnosis of hepatic tumors by contrast-enhanced color Doppler ultrasonography. Methods Thirty-two patients with known focal liver lesions(diameter 11-112 mm,mean 43 mm) were studied with color Doppler flow imaging(CDFI) before and after injection of 2.4 ml SonoVue at the concentration of 5 mg/ml. The pathological diagnosis included 13 benign lesions and 19 malignant ones. Analysis was performed on signal intensity of intratumoral vascularity,time of enhancement duration,resistant index and maximum velocity of intratumoral arterial blood flow. The data were compared between benign and malignant lesions. Results Before injection of SonoVue,intratumoral blood flow could be detected among 53.8 %(7/13) benign lesions and 78.9 %(15/19) malignant tumors. However these detection rates went up to 76.9 %(10/13) and 100%(19/19) respectively after administration of SonoVue. Significant difference between benign and malignant tumors was observed in time of enhancement duration. Furthermore RI showed significant difference between benign and malignant lesions.Diagnostic accuracy of hepatic tumors increased from 75.0 %( 24/32 ) to 90.6 %(29/32) after enhancement. Conclusions The clinical results showed the ability of contrast-enhanced CDFI in reflecting the blood supply of the hepatic tumors,demonstrating the high sensitivity and specificity of the technique,which could be of great value to the diagnosis of hepatic tumors.