Clinical value of dynamic 3-dimensional contrast-enhanced ultrasound imaging for the assessment of hepatocellular carcinoma ablation

Abstract

Objective: The aim of the study was to investigate the performance of dynamic 3-dimensional contrast-enhanced ultrasound (3D-CEUS) on assessment of efficacy of local ablation therapy of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT) as reference standard.

Methods: Eighty-nine HCC lesions from 75 patients undergoing ultrasound-guided percutaneous thermal ablation or chemical ablation were studied by both dynamic 3D-CEUS and contrast-enhanced CT 1month after ablation. Imaging results from two imaging modalities were evaluated independently by experienced readers to determine whether the treated lesions were ablated incompletely (residual unablated tumor) or completely. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, and accuracy to identify incomplete ablation were calculated for dynamic 3D-CEUS imaging with contrast-enhanced CT as reference standard.

Results: Contrast-enhanced CT reported that 80.9% (72/89) of all the treated lesions were completely ablated and 19.1% (17/89) were incompletely ablated. The dynamic 3D-CEUS identified 82.0% (73/89) and 18.0% (16/89) of lesions as completely and incompletely ablated, respectively. With contrast-enhanced CT as the reference standard, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and accuracy of dynamic 3D-CEUS for identifying residual unablated tumor were 88.2% (15/17), 98.6% (71/72), 93.8% (15/16), 97.3% (71/73), and 96.6% (86/89), respectively. The Kappa value for identifying residual unablated tumor between contrast-enhanced CT and dynamic 3D-CEUS was 0.89.

Conclusions: Dynamic 3D-CEUS is highly consistent with contrast-enhanced CT in assessment of efficacy of HCC ablation and has potential to serve as an alternative to contrast-enhanced CT in the follow-up assessment after HCC ablation.

Keywords: 3-dimensional; Ablation; Contrast agent; Hepatocellular carcinoma; Ultrasound examination.