American Journal of Roentgenology, Vol 164, 1131-1135, Copyright © 1995 by American Roentgen Ray Society

ARTICLES

Characterization of focal hepatic lesions with duplex sonography: findings in 198 patients

C Reinhold, L Hammers, CR Taylor, CL Quedens-Case, CK Holland and KJ Taylor
Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Montreal General Hospital, McGill University School of Medicine, Quebec, Canada.

OBJECTIVE. The purpose of this study was to determine the value of duplex Doppler sonography in the characterization of focal hepatic lesions. SUBJECTS AND METHODS. Duplex Doppler sonography with a 3-MHz transducer was performed prospectively on 198 patients with focal hepatic lesions. One hundred thirty-two patients had pathologically proved diagnoses, confirming 46 hepatomas and 86 metastatic lesions. Twenty-three hemangiomas were confirmed either with tissue, tagged RBC study, MR imaging, or hemangioma CT protocol. Forty-three patients with no history of cancer had benign lesions that were established on the basis of follow-up imaging and at least a 2-year clinical history with no evidence of cancer. RESULTS. Thirty-two hepatomas and four metastatic lesions had Doppler shifts of 4.5 kHz or more, giving a 70% sensitivity, 95% specificity, and 89% positive predictive value in distinguishing hepatomas from metastatic lesions. Forty-three hepatomas, 47 metastatic lesions, one hemangioma, and three benign lesions had Doppler shifts of 1.75 kHz or more, giving a 68% sensitivity, 94% specificity, and 96% positive predictive value in distinguishing malignant from benign lesions. Doppler shifts (mean +/- SD) were as follows: hepatomas, 4.72 +/- 1.72 kHz; metastases, 1.99 +/- 1.63 kHz; and hemangiomas, 0.53 +/- 0.75 kHz. These differences in mean Doppler shifts were statistically significant (p < .0001). CONCLUSION. Duplex Doppler sonography aids in distinguishing hepatomas from metastases and malignant from benign hepatic lesions with a high degree of specificity but low sensitivity.
CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				G-J Liu, H-X Xu, M-D Lu, X-Y Xie, Z-F Xu, Y-L Zheng, and J-Y Liang Correlation between enhancement pattern of hepatocellular carcinoma on real-time contrast-enhanced ultrasound and tumour cellular differentiation on histopathology Br. J. Radiol., May 1, 2007; 80(953): 321 - 330. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				E. Quaia, F. Calliada, M. Bertolotto, S. Rossi, L. Garioni, L. Rosa, and R. Pozzi-Mucelli Characterization of Focal Liver Lesions with Contrast-specific US Modes and a Sulfur Hexafluoride-filled Microbubble Contrast Agent: Diagnostic Performance and Confidence Radiology, August 1, 2004; 232(2): 420 - 430. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]