Doppler sonography in early detection of hepatic metastases after colorectal carcinoma.

ABSTRACT

It is known that the presence of even small hepatic metastases may lead to subtle changes in liver blood flow and it is possible that by monitoring these hemodynamic changes, an earlier detection of liver metastases may be feasible. As only half of the curatively resected patients develop liver metastases, many patients are over- treated and better methods to predict an individual patients risk for developing liver metastases are urgently needed. To treat occult metastases at an early stage, adjuvant chemotherapy has been given after curative resection of primary tumors, which is recommended now for some cases of colorectal carcinoma. The fact that duplex perfusion index for controls and patients with overt liver metastases is clearly separated suggested that Doppler ultrasonographic measurement can identify patients with overt hepatic metastases. This study showed a marked correlation between tumor staging and elevated Doppler perfusion index in colorectal carcinoma patients without liver metastases. This group of patients should be followed up to elaborate the results: