Diagnostic value of contrast-enhanced ultrasound in the focal liver lesions after liver transplantation

Objective To explore the diagnostic value of contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) in the focal liver lesions after liver transplantation.Methods Sixty-seven patients with focal liver lesions after li-ver transplantation were examined by CEUS.The infusion patterns of contrast agent were observed in arterial,portal-venous and late phases.The manifestations of persistent enhancement in late phase or never enhancing in all phases were considered as benign lesion while presenting low-or non-enhancement in late phase were consi-dered as malignant lesion.Sensitivity and false negative rate of CEUS for the differential diagnosis of benign and malignant lesions were calculated.Results In the lesions with hyper-enhancement during arterial phase,the enhancement of malignant lesions were more likely to subside during portal-venous and late phases compared with benign lesions (P0.01).The sensitivity of estimation of benign lesions by CEUS was 90%(19/21) with a false negative rate of 10%(2/21).Two false negative cases were liver abscesses.The sensitivity of estimation of malignant lesions was 100% (46/46).Conclusion CEUS has high diagnostic value in the focal liver lesions after liver transplantation and is helpful in differentiating between malignant and benign lesions.