Assessment of liver metastasis in patients with advanced gastric cancer using contrast-enhanced ultrasonography

Objective To evaluate the liver metastasis in patients with advanced gastric carcinoma using contrast-enhanced ultrasonography(CEUS).Methods Two hundreds and six patients with advanced gastric cancer proved by endoscopic biopsy who underwent preoperative CEUS examination were enrolled in this study.The metastatic lesions in liver were assessed using two-dimensionsl ultrasound firstly,then the CEUS was performed and the liver metastasis was assessed simultaneously.The results of these two modalities were compared each other.Results In 206 patients,21 cases(85 lesions)with liver metastasis were detected by two-dimensional ultrasound.However,28 patients(147 lesions)with liver metastasis were detected by CEUS.Seven cases(41 lesions)were detected only by CEUS.The isolating rate of CEUS was significantly higher than two-dimensionaI ultrasound(10.2%vs13.6%,x2=5.143,P＜0.05).Conclusions CEUS could be considered as a retrieving method of two-dimensional ultrasound for the diagnosis of liver metastasis in patients with advanced gastric carcinoma. Key words: Ultrasonography; Microbubbles; Stomach neoplasms; Neoplasm metastasis; Liver neoplasms