Detectiono of Pancreatic Carcinoma and Liver Metastases with Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasonography: Comparison with Contrast-Enhanced Multi-Detector Row CT

Abstract

To compare Contrast-enhanced ultrasonography with contrast material-enhanced multi-detector row computed tomography (CT) in detection of pancreatic carcinoma and liver metastases. This study included 60 patients (48 men, 12 women; mean age, 63.2 years) consisting of 40 patients with pathologically confirmed pancreatic carcinoma (mean size, 3.6 cm) and 20 without a pancreatic lesion. seventy-six liver metastases (mean size, 1.5 cm) in 20 patients with pancreatic carcinoma were diagnosed at pathologic examination or multimodality assessment. Three readers blinded to the final diagnosis interpreted all contrast-enhanced ultrasonography and contrast-enhanced CT images and graded the presence (or absence) of pancreatic carcinoma and liver metastasis on patient-by-patient and lesion-by-lesion bases. Receiver operating characteristic analysis, to compare the diagnostic performance of contrast-enhanced ultrasonography and CT imaging. No significant differences were observed between CT and contrast-enhanced ultrasonography in depiction of pancreatic carcinoma. However, contrast-enhanced ultrasonography had greater sensitivity in depicting liver metastasis than did CT (P<0.05) and in the lesion-by-lesion analysis (P<0.05). Contrast-enhanced ultrasonography was equivalent to dynamic contrast-enhanced CT in depicting pancreatic carcinoma and had better sensitivity for depicting liver metastases, suggesting the usefulness of Contrast-enhanced ultrasonography for evaluation of patients with pancreatic carcinoma.