Elasticity characteristic analysis of boundaries and surrounding liver tissue of focal liver lesions and their influencing factors / 中华超声影像学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To qualitatively analyze the elasticity characteristics of boundaries and surrounding liver tissue of focal liver lesions (FLL) by real-time shear wave elastography (SWE), and to analyze the relating influencing factors.Methods:One hundred and fifty-two patients with FLLs (152 lesions) from February 2012 to October 2013 in the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University were collected. SWE of FLLs and the surrounding liver tissue was performed and baseline clinical data were collected. The elastic boundary (clear or not clear) of FLLs and elasticity distributions of surrounding liver tissue and their influencing factors were analyzed.Results:A total of 26 benign lesions and 126 malignant lesions were included in this study. Twenty-five cases (96.2%) of benign lesions showed clear elastic boundaries and 1 case (3.8%) showed unclear elastic boundary while 82 cases (65.1%) of malignant lesions showed clear elastic boundaries and 44 cases (34.9%) showed unclear elastic boundaries. Multivariate analysis showed benign/malignant lesion was an independent influencing factor for elastic boundary ( P<0.05). Twenty cases (76.9%), 6 cases (23.1%) and 0 case of liver tissue around benign lesions showed type A, B and C elastic distribution respectively while 17 cases (13.5%), 60 cases (47.6%), and 49 cases (38.9%) of liver tissue around malignant lesions showed type A, B, and C elastic distribution. There were statistically significant differences of benign and malignant lesions, different viral hepatitis backgrounds, different gender, and different ALB, TBIL, ALT levels in elasticity distributions of surrounding liver tissue of FLLs among type A, B and C (all P<0.05) while there was no significant difference in different lesion size( P=0.036). Conclusions:The elasticity characteristics of boundaries and surrounding liver tissue of FLLs on SWE images can provide a reference for differential diagnosis of benign and malignant FLLs. The elastic characteristics of surrounding liver tissue of FLLs are influenced by the nature of lesions and the background of liver disease, but are not influenced by lesion size. Further quantitative studies of elasticity characteristics of boundaries and surrounding liver tissue are needed for the differential diagnosis of different types of FLLs.