ABSTRACT
Objective To analyze the characteristics and clinical value of time intensity curve (TIC) of contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) in recurrent small hepatocellular carcinoma (RSHCC) and primary small hepatocellular carrcinoma (PSHCC). Methods Sixty-five cases of RSHCC (all lesions ≤3 cm) were devided into group B1 with 42 cases of RSHCC (≤2 years ) , and group B2 with 23 cases of RSHCC ( > 2 yeras ) and group A invloved 49 cases of PSHCC (all lesions ≤3 cm). Enhancement patterns in arterial, portal and delayed phase were evaluated respectively in three groups through CEUS and analytic software Sonoliver was applied to obtain quantitative features of CEUS in the region of interest. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) was drawn and the area under curve (AUC) was calculated. Results CEUS showed hyper-enhancement difference in arte-rial phase in group B2 (72.4%) and group A (94.8%)(P′ = 0.008) showed statistical significance, but no sig-nificance was found in enhanced iso in portal phase (P = 0.078). Hypo-enhancement in the delayed phase in group B2 (75.9%), group A (96.6%) and group B1 (95.3%) (P′ = 0.003, P′ = 0.005). TIC showed HT difference (half time of descending) in B2 group, A group and B1 group (P′ = 0.007, P′ = 0.013) indicated statistical significance but RT, TTP, MTT(P = 0.319,P = 0.104, P = 0.461) showed no difference. AUC was 0.841 (half time of descending). Conclusions Enhancement patterns of CEUS (RSHCC) are related to recur-rent time . En hancement patterns of RSHCC (> 2 years ) is not typical so CEUS should be combined with quanti-tative analysis of TIC to provide reference for its treatment and prognosis.