Efficacy of Levovist in color Doppler ultrasonography of benign and malignant ovarian tumors / 中华超声影像学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To assess the efficacy of ultrasound contrast agent Levovist in evaluating vascularization of ovarian tumors.Methods Nineteen ovarian lesions (seven benign ovarian tumors,twelve malignant ovarian tumors) were submitted to color Doppler flow imaging (CDFI) before and after i.v.Levovist for examining their vascularization,including the number of blood vessel,vessel torsion and Doppler signal enhancement. And then receiver operator characteristic(ROC) curves were established.Results Compared to benign tumors',after contrast color Doppler signals in malignant tumors enhanced obviously and character characteristic vessel morphologies were observed.Vessel numbers and tortuosity increased obviously.Doppler signal enhancement appeared earlier,arrival to peak enhancement was quicker,and duration longer.ROC showed time to commencement for the enhancement ≤50 s,time to peak ≤100 s and enhancement duration ≥400 s,at which the sensitivity and specificity were the highest.Conclusions Levovist,as a contrast agent, increases the intensity of color Doppler signals obviously,and allows a more complete display of the vascular patterns of ovarian tumor.It improves markedly the role of CDFI in the diagnosis and differentiation of ovarian tumors.