Superb microvascular imaging technology of ultrasound examinations for hepatic hemangiomas: A preliminary result

Abstract

Purpose To investigate the superb microvascular imaging (SMI) appearance of hepatic hemangioma and explore whether SMI technology could be helpful for the evaluation of hepatic hemangiomas. Materials & Methods Our institutional review board approved this study, and informed consent was obtained from all of the patients. In this on-going prospective study, fifty-five patients with 71 hepatic hemangiomas were enrolled. All lesions were in liver right lobe and radiologically confirmed with typical imaging features of hepatic hemangiomas on dynamic computed tomography (CT). The mean tumor diameter was 2.2 cm (range, 1.1 cm to 7.0 cm). Using SMI technology, all lesions were scanned and categorized into subgroups according to the flow pattern on the SMI. Results The SMI patterns of hepatic hemangiomas consisted of nodular rim patterns (n = 26, 36.6%); nodular rim with a dot-like pattern (n = 16, 22.5%); spotty dot-like pattern (n = 8; 11.3%) and absence of signal (n = 21; 29.6%). Other previously reported SMI flow pattern of hepatic tumors were not detected in hepatic hemangiomas. All high-flow hemangiomas on CT or MRI (n = 14) showed specific patterns of hepatic hemangioams in SMI technology such as nodular rim patterns (n = 3) or nodular rim with a dot-like pattern (n = 11). Absence of signal in SMI technology (n = 21) was only detected in low-flow hemangiomas on CT(21/71, 30%) and significantly frequent in small hemangiomas less than 2cm than (18/35 vs. 3/36 (51.2% vs.8.3%), P Conclusion Evaluations of the inner vascularities of hepatic hemangiomas with the SMI technique were feasible, and specific SMI patterns were frequently showed in larger (≥ 2 cm) or high-flow hemangiomas.