| ORIGINAL ARTICLE |
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| Year : 2018 | Volume
: 26
| Issue : 3 | Page : 128-133 |
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The most appropriate time delay after microbubble contrast agent intravenous injection to maximize liver metastasis conspicuity on contrast-enhanced ultrasound
Emilio Quaia1, Antonio Giulio Gennari2
1 Department of Radiology, Edinburgh Imaging Facility Queen's Medical Research Institute, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH16 4TJ, Scotland, UK
2 Department of Radiology, Cattinara Hospital, University of Trieste, 34149 Trieste, Italy
Correspondence Address:
Dr. Emilio Quaia
Edinburgh Imaging Facility Queen's Medical Research Institute, University of Edinburgh, 47 Little France Crescent, Edinburgh EH16 4TJ, Scotland
UK
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | 4 |
DOI: 10.4103/JMU.JMU_12_17
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Purpose: To identify the most appropriate time delay after microbubble contrast agent injection to maximize liver metastasis conspicuity on contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS). Methods: Twenty-five consecutive patients (12 male and 13 female; age: 50 ± 13 years) with a known primary tumor and evidence of liver metastases on unenhanced ultrasound (US) underwent CEUS. CEUS consisted of continuous liver parenchyma scanning during arterial (15–35 s after microbubble injection), portal venous (40–120 s), and late phase (from 120 s up to microbubble disappearance). Subjective conspicuity index (ranging from 1 to 5) and objective conspicuity index (Ilesion–Iliver/Iliver, I = signal intensity) were calculated on reference frames selected on arterial phase and every 20 s on portal venous and late phase. Results: A total number of 40 liver metastases were identified after microbubble injection. The highest liver metastasis conspicuity was observed on early portal venous phase (40–60 s after microbubble injection) both on visual (mean subjective conspicuity index ± standard deviation [SD] = 4.36 ± 0.75, reader 1; 4.25 ± 0.65, reader 2) and quantitative analysis (mean objective conspicuity index ± SD = −0.99 ± 0.001). Conclusion: The early portal venous phase (40–60 s after microbubble injection) provides the best liver metastases' conspicuity after microbubble contrast agent injection. |
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