Study of gallbladder adenomas with contrast-enhanced ultrasound

Abstract

Objective To investigate the value of contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) in differentiating benign and malignant adenomas of gallbladder.Methods Twenty-four patients with gallbladder adenomas were performed by CEUS. The characteristics of CEUS findings in benign and malignant adenomas were analyzed. Results ①Twenty benign adenomas and four adenomas with cancer loci were confirmed by pathology. All lesions were enhanced in different degree on CEUS. ② The arrival time of enhancement between benign group and malignant group had no significant difference ( P>0.05); time to peak and arrival-peak time between the two groups showed significant differences ( P<0.01 ). ③ The enhancement patterns of benign group were: thirteen (65%) lesions showed homogeneous iso-enhancement,five (20%) lesions showed a feeding artery at the fundament of lesions at the early time,two (10%) lesions showed hypo-enhancement. ④ Malignant lesions showed multiple tortuous vessels or heterogeneous hyper-enhancement at the early time. Conclusions The CEUS findings are different between benign and malignant gallbladder adenomas. The enhancement pattern and speed are useful for differentiating benign from malignant adenomas. Key words: Ultrasonography; Microbubbles; Gallbladder neoplasms; Adenoma