Imaging diagnosis of small hepatocellular carcinoma using ultrasound, contrast-enhanced ultrasound and multislice spiral CT / 南方医科大学学报

ABSTRACT

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To evaluate the value of gray-scale ultrasound, contrast-enhanced ultrasound and multislice spiral CT in early and differential imaging diagnosis of small hepatocellular carcinoma (SHCC).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>This study included 35 patients with space-occupying lesions in the liver identified by routine ultrasound examination. The hemodynamics of the patients was recorded during the arterial, portal and lag phases using contrast-enhanced ultrasound. The enhancement features of the 3 phases were observed using multislice spiral CT. All the cases were confirmed by pathological examinations.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>For SHCC diagnosis, gray-scale ultrasound, contrast-enhanced ultrasound and multislice spiral CT showed a sensitivity of 77.8%, 94.4%, and 100%, specificity of 88.2%, 100%, and 94.1%, positive predictive value of 87.5%, 100%, and 94.7%, negative predictive values 78.9%, 94.4%, and 100%, concordance rate of 82.9%, 97.1%, and 97.1% and Younden index of 0.66, 0.94, and 0.94, respectively.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Contrast-enhanced ultrasound and multislice spiral CT have significantly greater diagnostic efficacy than gray-scale ultrasound in early and differential diagnosis of SHCC. But in some atypical cases, gray-scale ultrasound, contrast-enhanced ultrasound and multislice CT have to be combined to establish a diagnosis.</p>