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  • Title: Diagnosis of liver cirrhosis by transit-time analysis at contrast-enhanced ultrasonography.
    Author: Abbattista T, Ridolfi F, Ciabattoni E, Marini F, Bendia E, Brunelli E, Busilacchi P.
    Journal: Radiol Med; 2008 Sep; 113(6):860-74. PubMed ID: 18587531.
    Abstract:
    PURPOSE: The aims of this prospective study were to evaluate analysis of sulfur-hexafluoride-filled microbubble contrast agent (Sonovue) transit times as a tool for differentiating liver cirrhosis from the noncirrhotic stage of liver disease and to compare its performance with that of conventional B-mode and Doppler ultrasonography (US). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Contrast-enhanced hepatic ultrasonography with the US contrast agent Sonovue was performed on 38 patients with diagnoses of hepatic cirrhosis based on unequivocal clinical signs or liver biopsy findings (Child-Pugh classes A in 19, B in 16 and C in three), 31 patients with noncirrhotic diffuse liver disease (biopsy confirmed) and 14 controls without diffuse liver disease. Time curves of hepatic-vein signal intensity were analysed using objective criteria to determine the time of enhancement onset (hepatic-vein arrival time) and peak enhancement (hepatic-vein peak enhancement). Accuracy in diagnosing cirrhosis was compared with that based on B-mode and Doppler data. RESULTS: Hepatic-vein arrival time in cirrhotic patients was significantly shorter (p < 0.01) than in noncirrhotic (chronic liver disease and controls) patients. Peak enhancement times in these three groups were not significantly different. An arrival-time cutoff of 17 s distinguished cirrhotic from noncirrhotic patients with high accuracy (100% sensitivity, 93.3% specificity, positive and negative predictive values 92.6% and 100%, respectively) and excellent reproducibility (kappa coefficients of 1.0 and 0.93 for intraand interobserver agreement). Contrast-enhanced US showed better sensitivity than the B-mode and Doppler data. CONCLUSIONS: Analysis of the time of onset of US contrast enhancement of the hepatic vein appears to be a potentially useful noninvasive supplement to conventional sonography and Doppler in the follow-up of patients with chronic diffuse liver disease.
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