Evaluation of Hepatocellular Carcinoma by Contrast-Enhanced Sonography

• DOI: 10.7863/jum.2011.30.5.625
• Publication Date: 2017-01-09T13:26:45Z
• Authors: Jin Feng Xu; Hui Yu Liu; Yang Shi; Zhang Hong Wei; Ying Wu
• Keywords: Male; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular; Liver Neoplasms; Statistics as Topic; Sulfur Hexafluoride; Contrast Media; Reproducibility of Results; Middle Aged; Image Enhancement; Sensitivity and Specificity; 3. Good health; 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine; Humans; Female; Phospholipids; Ultrasonography

The purpose of this study was to determine whether contrast-enhanced sonography can be used to differentiate histopathologic grades of hepatocellular carcinoma.This study included 54 patients with hepatocellular carcinomas. All patients underwent fundamental and contrast-enhanced sonographic examinations. Auto-tracking contrast quantification software was used to determine the contrast arrival time, time to peak, peak intensity, contrast-enhanced time, wash-out time, enhancement slope, and clearance slope of the lesions. All lesions were confirmed by surgery. The hepatocellular carcinoma lesions were divided into 2 groups according to the World Health Organization grading system: group 1 (well-differentiated hepatocellular carcinomas) and group 2 (moderately to poorly differentiated carcinomas). The enhancement parameters between the groups were compared using a Student t test.Fourteen of 20 well-differentiated lesions showed a "fast-in, slow-out" enhancement pattern, whereas 6 showed a "fast-in, fast-out" pattern. Thirty-three of 34 moderately to poorly differentiated lesions showed a fast-in, fast-out pattern, whereas only 1 showed a fast-in, slow-out pattern. The differences in the time to peak, contrast-enhanced time, wash-out time, enhancement slope, and clearance slope between the groups were statistically significant (P < .05), whereas the differences in the arrival time and peak intensity were not significant (P > .05).The contrast patterns of well-differentiated and moderately to poorly differentiated hepatocellular carcinomas were quite different on contrast-enhanced sonography. The time to peak, contrast-enhanced time, and wash-out time of the well-differentiated hepatocellular carcinomas were longer than those of the moderately to poorly differentiated carcinomas, whereas the enhancement slope and clearance slope of the well-differentiated lesions were lower those that of the moderately to poorly differentiated lesions.