ABSTRACT
Objective: To investigate the diagnostic values of separated renal multi-locular cystic lesions color Doppler ultra-sound and contrast-enhanced ultrasound performance in multi-locular cystic renal cell carcinoma and cysts. Methods:A total of 53 pa-tients (54 lesions) with multi-locular cystic renal cell carcinoma and cysts were included in the study. The presence of carcinoma and cysts was confirmed via histopathology and tested using ultrasound. Contrast-enhanced ultrasound was applied in 24 (24 lesions) of the total number of patients, and the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to analyze the numbers of separation, thick-ness, and type of blood flow patterns of the lesions. The contrast-enhanced ultrasound characteristics were also analyzed. We analyzed the diagnostic value of the color Doppler ultrasound in the separated renal multilocular cystic lesions and the contrast-enhanced ultra-sound performance in multi-locular cystic renal cell carcinoma and cysts. Results:Based on the analysis of the ROC curves of the sepa-ration number, thickness, and type of the blood flow of the lesions in 53 patients (54 lesions), the diagnostic specificity was relatively higher in the lesions where the separation number was≥5 strips (86%), the thicknesses were>3 and≤4 mm (95%), and blood flow was band-like (86%). The areas under the curve of the three indexes were 0.7621, 0.8331, and 0.7962, respectively, which indicate high diagnostic values. The separation number of 4 strips, the thicknesses of>2 and≤3 mm, and the point-like blood flow could be used as critical values for the diagnosis. The contrast enhancement, enhancement peak, and disappearance were (11.2 ± 3.4), (21.7 ± 3.8), and (32.1±4.0) s in 14 patients with multi-locular cystic renal cell carcinoma and (18.4±4.5), (37.8±8.0), and (51.3±9.0) s in 10 patients with multi-locular renal cysts, with statistically significant differences (t=4.47, t'=5.90, t'=6.31, respectively;P<0.05). Conclusion:The sepa-ration number, thickness, and type of blood flow of lesions have relatively higher specificity in multi-locular renal cysts than in multi-locular cystic renal cell carcinoma. The ROC curves show a high diagnostic value. Contrast-enhanced ultrasound of the lesions helped in the differential diagnosis of multi-locular cystic renal cell carcinoma and renal cysts.