title: Dynamic Vascular Pattern (DVP), a quantification tool for contrast enhanced ultrasound.
abstract: Contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) is widely applied in tumour diagnosis, especially for focal liver lesions (FLL), due to its high sensitivity and specificity. According to the European Federation of Societies for Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology (EFSUMB) CEUS guidelines (2012) and non-liver guidelines (2011), the majority of tumours, regardless of location, show specific CEUS enhancement patterns that can distinguish benign from malignant lesions. However, even experienced clinicians evaluating FLL may find occasional irregularities in these patterns, due to particular FLL pathologies, that make a definitive diagnosis difficult. Hence, there is a need to train physicians to utilize contrast enhancement kinetics to aid in the correct interpretation of data from CEUS examinations in patients with divergent liver tumour pathologies. Here we report on a CEUS quantitation software, SonoLiver®, to verify and improve diagnostic accuracy in the characterization of suspicious liver lesions through the analysis of dynamic vascular patterns (DVP).
authors.affiliation: Medical Clinic 2, Caritas-Krankenhaus Bad Mergentheim, Academic Teaching Hospital of the University of Würzburg, Bad Mergentheim, Germany.
authors.forename: X W
authors.initials: XW
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ignee
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jedrzejczyk
authors.forename: C F
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Dietrich
mesh_terms: D003287:Contrast Media; D006499:Hepatic Artery / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006503:Hepatic Veins / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods*; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D009389:Neovascularization, Pathologic / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D015588:Observer Variation; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012984:Software; D014463:Ultrasonography / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D003287:Contrast Media