Value of contrast-enhanced ultrasound for differentiation between benign and malignant gallbladder diseases

Abstract

Objective To investigate the clinical value of contrast-enhanced ultrasound in differ-entiation between benign and malignant gallbladder diseases. Methods Contrast-enhanced ultrasound was performed in eighty patients who were suspicious of gallbladder cancer by conventional ultra-sound. Final diagnosis proved that it was gallbladder cancers 33 patients and benign gallbladder disease in 47. Contrast agent SonoVue and low mechanical index imaging mode were applied. The contrast en-hancement characteristics of the initial enhancement time, the enhancement pattern and the integrality of gallbladder wall adjacent to lesions were analyzed. Meanwhile, the ability of differentiating diagno-sis between benign and malignant gallbladder diseases with contrast-enhanced ultrasound was investi-gated. Results The percentages of those lesions that exhibited hyper-enhancement or iso-enhancement in the early phase and turned to hypo-enhancement within 35s after contrast agent administration were 96.8 % (30/31) in gallbladder cancers and 19.5 % (8/41) in benign lesions(P<0. 001), and the mean time to be hypo-enhancement was (29.5 ± 9.8) s in gallbladder cancers and (58. 8±13.9) s in benign lesions (P<0. 001). Inhomogeneous enhancement was found in 26 (78. 8% ,26/33) gallbladder carci-nomas and 13 (27.6% ,13/47) benign lesions (P<0. 001). Destruction of the integrality of gallblad-der wall was found in 28 (84. 8% ,28/33) gallbladder carcinomas and none (0. 0% ,0/47) of benign le-sions (P<0. 001). The accuracies for differential diagnosis between malignant and benign gallbladder diseases were 72. 5% (58/80) for conventional ultrasound and 93. 8% (75/80) for contrast-enhanced ultrasound (P<0. 001). Conclusion Contrast-enhanced ultrasound can significantly improve the abili-ty of differentiating diagnosis between benign and malignant gallbladder diseases compared with con-ventional ultrasound. The method is deserved to be popularized in clinical practice. Key words: Ultrasonic diagnosis; Gallbladder disease; Differentiating diagnosis