Dynamic Vascular Pattern (DVP), a Quantification Tool for Contrast Enhanced Ultrasound

Abstract

Contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) is widely applied in tumour diagnosis, especially for focal liver lesions (FLL), due to its high sensitivity and specificity. According to the European Federation of Societies for Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology (EFSUMB) CEUS guidelines (2012) and non-liver guidelines (2011), the majority of tumours, regardless of location, show specific CEUS enhancement patterns that can distinguish benign from malignant lesions. However, even experienced clinicians evaluating FLL may find occasional irregularities in these patterns, due to particular FLL pathologies, that make a definitive diagnosis difficult. Hence, there is a need to train physicians to utilize contrast enhancement kinetics to aid in the correct interpretation of data from CEUS examinations in patients with divergent liver tumour pathologies. Here we report on a CEUS quantitation software, SonoLiver^®, to verify and improve diagnostic accuracy in the characterization of suspicious liver lesions through the analysis of dynamic vascular patterns (DVP).

Zusammenfassung

Kontrastverstärkte Ultraschalltechniken haben sich im klinischen Alltag etabliert und es wurden Leitlinien publiziert. In manchen Fällen sind diskrete Anreicherungsunterschiede, bspw. in einem Lebertumor und umgebenden Leberparenchym, schwierig zu differenzieren. Dynamic Vascular Pattern (DVP) ist eine hilfreiche Methode, diese Unterschiede farblich zu markieren, d. h. ein rot/orangener Farbton spricht für eine relative Mehranreicherung im Vergleich zur Umgebung und eine blaue Färbung für eine relative Minderanreicherung. In der folgenden Arbeit wird die Technik dargelegt und mögliche Anwendungsbereiche diskutiert.

Schlüsselwörter

Tumor - Hämangiom - Metastase

Key words

tumour - hemangiom - metastasis

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