Assessment of normal liver contrast ultrasonography with harmonic power imaging

Objective To assess normal liver contrast color enhancement using harmonic power imaging (HPI), comparative studies between HPI and color Doppler flow imaging (CDFI) were performed. Methods Four normal dogs were imaged with HPI and CDFI after intravenously injection of contrast agent at 0.02 ml/kg. The subjective scores of color enhancement and artifacts were estimated. Results There were significant color enhancement (Grade 3) both in HPI and CDFI imaging of liver after contrast., but severe (Grade 3) color blooming artifacts always appeared in CDFI comparing to mild (Grade 1) artifacts in HPI. Conclusions Harmonic power imaging is better than CDFI in achieving actual liver perfusion imaging and eliminating color blooming artifacts in microbubbles contrast.