Value of contrast-enhanced sonography for the characterization of focal hepatic lesions in patients with diffuse liver disease: receiver operating characteristic analysis.
OBJECTIVE
Our aim was to assess the diagnostic performance of contrast-enhanced agent detection sonographic imaging to characterize focal hepatic lesions in patients with diffuse liver disease in comparison with baseline sonographic images and to determine whether agent detection imaging can reduce the necessity of further diagnostic workup for lesion characterization.


METHODS
Contrast-enhanced sonography using 4 g of Levovist at a concentration of 300 mg/mL was performed on 75 focal hepatic lesions in 75 patients with diffuse liver disease. Interval reviews for both baseline without and with contrast-enhanced sonography were performed independently by two radiologists. They were requested to determine the malignity of focal hepatic lesions using a 5-point confidence level and to record the specific diagnoses and the necessity for further imaging for lesion characterization. Radiologists' performances for lesion differentiation using baseline and contrast-enhanced sonography were evaluated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. Interobserver agreement was also analyzed.


RESULTS
When contrast-enhanced sonography was used, ROC analysis revealed a significant improvement for both reviewers (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve [A(z)] = 0.753 and 0.830 and 0.971 and 0.974 at baseline sonography and contrast-enhanced sonography, respectively; p < 0.002) for differentiating malignant and benign focal liver lesions. Contrast-enhanced sonography also improved specificity from 12% to 91% for reviewer 1 and from 26% to 85% for reviewer 2 compared with baseline sonography. Furthermore, excellent interobserver agreement was achieved for contrast-enhanced sonography (weighted kappa = 0.919), whereas only good agreement was achieved for baseline sonography (weighted kappa = 0.656). A better result for specific diagnosis was obtained by contrast-enhanced sonography (79% and 75%) than by baseline sonography (37% and 48%, p < 0.05). Contrast-enhanced sonography (72% and 63%) outperformed baseline sonography (35% and 28%, p < 0.05) as a confirmatory imaging technique.


CONCLUSIONS
Contrast-enhanced agent detection sonography can be used to characterize focal hepatic lesions in patients with diffuse liver disease reliably and with a higher diagnostic confidence than baseline sonography. Furthermore, contrast-enhanced sonography reduced the need for further diagnostic workups for focal hepatic lesion characterization.
Kim
Se Hyung
SH
Department of Radiology and Institute of Radiation Medicine, Seoul National University Hospital, 28 Yongon-dong, Chongno-gu, Seoul 110-744, South Korea.
Lee
Jeong Min
JM
Lee
Jae Young
JY
Han
Joon Koo
JK
An
Su Kyung
SK
Han
Chang Jin
CJ
Lee
Kyoung Ho
KH
Hwang
Seung Sik
SS
Choi
Byung Ihn
BI
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D003287:Contrast Media; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008107:Liver Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011134:Polysaccharides; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012372:ROC Curve; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D014463:Ultrasonography
D003287:Contrast Media; D011134:Polysaccharides; C059891:SHU 508