[Assessment of the therapeutic effectiveness of alcohol administration in hepatocarcinoma: comparison of spiral computerized tomography and Doppler color ultrasonography]. / Valutazione dell' efficacia terapeutica dell' alcolizzazione nell' epatocarcinoma: confronto tra Tomografia Computerizzata spirale ed eco color Doppler.

PURPOSE: To investigate the comparative adequacy of spiral CT and color-Doppler US versus biopsy in assessing the efficacy of percutaneous ethanol injection (PEI) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fifteen patients with 30 known HCCs, 2-5 cm in diameter, underwent PEI. Arterial phase spiral CT and color-Doppler US were performed before treatment in all patients. Treatment efficacy was established on the basis of color-Doppler, spiral CT and percutaneous biopsy findings; biopsy was the gold standard. RESULTS: After PEI, 22 of 30 lesions which were negative for malignant cells at biopsy were completely necrotic at spiral CT and avascular at color-Doppler US. In the extant 8 lesions, which exhibited residual tumor tissue at biopsy, spiral CT detected early enhancement of the viable tumor portion in all cases. Color-Doppler US showed residual tumor vascularization in 4 of 8 lesions. CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrate that spiral CT, performed in the arterial phase, can improve the depiction of residual viable tumor tissue in HCCs treated with PEI, overcoming color-Doppler limitations.