A Study to Assess the Accurate Detection and Characterization of Liver Masses among Patients with Liver Lesions Admitted in a Tertiary Care Centre

ABSTRACT

A reliable affirmation and delineation of focal liver injuries is crucial for immaculate patient association. The commonly encountered liver masses on ultrasonography are simple liver cyst, haemangioma, metastasis, hepatocellular carcinoma etc. We wanted to assess the accurate detection and characterization of liver masses among patients with liver lesions. METHODSA prospective study was conducted among 60 patients with liver lesions, who had undergone both abdominal ultrasonography and computed tomography and correlation was done with histopathology (FNAC / FNAB) for confirmation. Ultrasonography of liver imaging was obtained with SIEMENS and Longitudinal (sagittal), transverse (horizontal), coronal and oblique planes were obtained by using 3.5 MHz frequency transducer. Triple-phase helical CT images of the liver were obtained with Siemens Emotion 16 slice MDCT machine with 5 mm collimation, 0.6 mm reconstruction interval, gantry rotation speed of 0.6 second, pitch of 1.3751, 120 kV, and 600 mA. RESULTSLesions which were encountered in the given time span were hepatocellular carcinoma (20 %), metastasis (33.3 %), hydrated cyst (2 %), abscess (5 %), haemangioma (13.3 %), Gb carcinoma, cholangiocarcinoma and other (5 % each) and simple liver cysts (10 %). Among the metastases observed in the liver, 20 % cases were from colorectal malignancies, 20 % were from lung, 15 % from breast, 15 % from ovary, and 15 % were from oesophagus and 15 % were from stomach. The highest percentages of liver metastases were from colon and rectum followed by lungs, oesophagus and stomach, and breast and ovary. Our study showed an accuracy of 98 % in diagnosing various lesions by confirming these diagnoses using image guided FNAC / FNAB. CONCLUSIONSClinical diagnosis based on examination can be very inaccurate, radiological investigations using ultrasonography and computed tomography can help us to arrive at an accurate diagnosis most of the times. Image guided FNAC / FNAB can confirm / dispute radiological diagnosis. This shows excellent correlation between radiological diagnosis and histological diagnosis of various liver lesions.