RESUMO
Objective: To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of fusion imaging contrast-enhanced ultrasound (FI-CEUS) of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) LI-RADS-indeterminate (LR-3/4) and conventional ultrasound undetected focal liver lesions (FLLs) in patients at risk for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods: Between February 2020 and July 2021, 71 FLLs in 63 patients were registered for diagnostic performance evaluation respectively for ultrasound-guided thermal ablation evaluation in this retrospective study. Diagnostic performance regarding FLLs was compared between FI-CEUS and contrast-enhanced MRI (CE-MRI). Results: For diagnostic performance evaluation, among 71 lesions in 63 patients, the diagnostic efficacy of FI-CEUS with LI-RADS was significantly higher than that of CE-MRI (P < 0.05) in both overall and hierarchical comparison (except for the group with lesion diameter ≥2 cm). For malignant lesions, the proportion of arterial phase hyperenhancement (APHE) and washout on FI-CEUS was higher than that on CE-MRI (P < 0.05). Conclusion: FI-CEUS has a high value in the precise qualitative diagnosis of small FLLs (<2 cm) of MRI LI-RADS-indeterminate diagnosis (LR-3/4) that are undetected by conventional ultrasound in patients at risk for HCC and can be a good supplementary CE-MRI diagnostic method for thermal ablation evaluation.