ABSTRACT
Objective:To investigate the diagnostic value of the post-vascular phase of contrast-enhanced ultrasound in the differentiation of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).Methods:The contrast-enhanced ultrasound data of 115 patients who were admitted to Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology for liver space-occupying lesions from September 2020 to September 2021 were retrospectively analyzed. All patients underwent contrast-enhanced ultrasound with perfluorobutane microspheres for injection within 1 week before operation and were confirmed to be HCC by postoperative pathology. According to the pathological results, the lesions were divided into two groups—a well differentiated group and a poorly differentiated group. The time intensity curves of the regions of interest were drawn to obtain the quantitative parameters of arterial phase and the post-vascular phase. The diagnostic performance of each quantitative parameter in differentiating the two groups of lesions was evaluated and the cut-off value was calculated.Results:117 lesions from 115 patients were finally included in the study, including 70 lesions in the well differentiated group and 47 lesions in the poorly differentiated group. There were no significant differences in the initial growth time, peak time, rise time and the absolute value of peak intensity of lesions between the two groups in the arterial phase (all P>0.05). In the post-vascular phase(12 min), the absolute value of enhancement intensity, intensity ratio and intensity difference of the well differentiated group were lower than those in the poorly differentiated group, and the difference was statistically significant (all P<0.01). The sensitivity and specificity of the absolute value of enhancement intensity<56.117 dB, intensity ratio<1.212, intensity difference<9.184 dB to distinguish the HCC lesions as well-differentiated group were 48.9% and 80.0%, 87.2% and 77.1%, 89.4% and 75.7%, respectively. Conclusions:The quantitative analysis of the post-vascular phase of contrast-enhanced ultrasound is helpful to identify the differentiation degree of HCC and has certain clinical application value.
