Comparison of [18F]Fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography and Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound for Evaluation of Hepatic Alveolar Echinococcosis Activity

The mean gray-scale ratio of the infiltrating zone of a lesion to the surrounding normal liver tissue was evaluated on the basis of contrast enhancement of the infiltration and proliferation zones of a hepatic alveolar echinococcosis lesion. The results were compared with the maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) of [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography ([18F]FDG PET-CT), and the application of contrast-enhanced ultrasound in evaluating hepatic alveolar echinococcosis activity is discussed. The 36 patients with hepatic alveolar echinococcosis recruited underwent contrast-enhanced ultrasound and [18F]FDG PET-CT. A total of 39 lesions were found in the 36 patients. The results indicated that in 87.2% of the cases, the two methods yielded the same diagnosis, whereas in 12.8% of cases, the diagnoses obtained with the two methods were inconsistent. The statistical results revealed that contrast-enhanced ultrasound and [18F]FDG PET-CT have good inter-rater reliability in determining the activity of hepatic alveolar echinococcosis (κ = 0.756, p < 0.01).