Clinical study of acoustic radiation force impulse imaging in the differential diagnosis of benign and malignant liver lesions

Abstract

Objective To detect the tissue stiffness of liver lesions by using acoustic radiation force impulse imaging (ARFI) and to evaluate the clinical value on the characteristics of liver lesions.Methods ARFI was perforrned in 91 patients with 103 liver lesions (56 benign,48 malignant).Tbe elastographic images of virtual touch tissue imaging (VTI) and the values of virtual touch tissue quantification (VTQ) were analyzed.The area under the curve and cutoff value for VTQ value were used to assess diagnostic performance.Results On the elastographic images of VTI,79.17 ％ (31/55) malignant liver lesions and 56.36 ％ (38/48) benign liver lesions appeared stiffer compared with the surrounding liver parenchyma.There was statistical difference between malignant and benign liver lesions (x2 =0.627,P ＜ 0.01).The VTQ values of malignant and benign liver lesions were (2.64±0.65) m/s and (1.72±0.39) m/s,respectively,and there was statistical difference between them (t =8.638,P ＜ 0.01).With a cutoff value of 2.10 m/s for VTQ value,the sensitivity and specificity of diagnosis for liver malignancy were 83.3 ％ and 81.8 ％,respectively.Conclusion ARFI can provide information of the tissue stiffuess in live lesions,which is helpful in the differentiation between benign and malignant liver lesions and might become the imaging modality in the future. Key words: Liver neoplasms ;  Ultrasonography ;  Dopplar, color ;  Stiffness