Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
1760282 | Ultrasound in Medicine & Biology | 2015 | 12 Pages |
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to assess the efficacy of conventional ultrasound (US) and contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) in guiding and assessing early therapeutic response to radiofrequency (RF) ablation for hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs; up to 3 lesions, each â¤3 cm in diameter) and to report the short-term follow-up results. Between September 2011 and January 2013, 63 patients with 78 HCCs (â¤3 cm) underwent conventional US- and CEUS-guided percutaneous RF ablation. CEUS was repeated after 20-30 min to assess therapeutic response, and local efficacy was further confirmed by contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) 1 mo after tumor ablation. Patients were followed periodically to look for local tumor or disease progression. Survival probability was estimated with the Kaplan-Meier method. Complete ablation was achieved for 76 (97.4%) of 78 HCCs in one (n = 73) or two (n = 3) sessions. No major complications were observed in any patient. The overall concordance in assessment of therapeutic efficacy of RF ablation between CEUS and MRI was 97.4% (76/78 tumors). The concordance test gave a value of κ = 0.74 (p < 0.001), indicating that CEUS had a high diagnostic agreement with MRI. During a mean follow-up of 20 mo, the local tumor progression rate was 5.3% (4/76 tumors). The 1-, 1.5- and 2-y cumulative survival rates were 98.4%, 96.1% and 92.6%, respectively. Although CEUS has some intrinsic limitations, the combined use of conventional US and CEUS provides a safe and efficient tool to guide RF ablation for HCCs 3 cm or smaller, with encouraging results in terms of survival rate and minimal complications. Moreover, the immediate post-procedural CEUS can be a reliable alternative to contrast-enhanced MRI for assessing the early therapeutic response to RF ablation.
Keywords
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering
Physics and Astronomy
Acoustics and Ultrasonics
Authors
Jing Du, Hong-Li Li, Bo Zhai, Samuel Chang, Feng-Hua Li,