title: Classification of hypervascular liver lesions based on hepatic artery and portal vein blood supply coefficients calculated from triphasic CT scans.
abstract: Perfusion CT of the liver typically involves scanning the liver at least 20 times, resulting in a large radiation dose. We developed and validated a simplified model of tumor blood supply that can be applied to standard triphasic scans and evaluated whether this can be used to distinguish benign and malignant liver lesions. Triphasic CTs of 46 malignant and 32 benign liver lesions were analyzed. For each phase, regions of interest were drawn in the arterially enhancing portion of each lesion, as well as the background liver, aorta, and portal vein. Hepatic artery and portal vein blood supply coefficients for each lesion were then calculated by expressing the enhancement curve of the lesion as a linear combination of the enhancement curves of the aorta and portal vein. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and hypervascular metastases, on average, both had increased hepatic artery coefficients compared to the background liver. Compared to HCC, benign lesions, on average, had either a greater hepatic artery coefficient (hemangioma) or a greater portal vein coefficient (focal nodular hyperplasia or transient hepatic attenuation difference). Hypervascularity with washout is a key diagnostic criterion for HCC, but it had a sensitivity of 72 % and specificity of 81 % for diagnosing malignancy in our diverse set of liver lesions. The sensitivity for malignancy was increased to 89 % by including enhancing lesions that were hypodense on all phases. The specificity for malignancy was increased to 97 % (p = 0.039) by also examining hepatic artery and portal vein blood supply coefficients, while maintaining a sensitivity of 76 %.
authors.affiliation: Interventional Radiology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, 1275 York Ave, New York, NY, 10065, USA, boas@post.harvard.edu.
authors.forename: F Edward
authors.initials: FE
authors.lastname: Boas
authors.forename: Aya
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kamaya
authors.forename: Bao
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Do
authors.forename: Terry S
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Desser
authors.forename: Christopher F
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Beaulieu
authors.forename: Shreyas S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Vasanawala
authors.forename: Gloria L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Hwang
authors.forename: Daniel Y
authors.initials: DY
authors.lastname: Sze
mesh_terms: D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000145:classification / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000601:surgery; D017115:Catheter Ablation / Q000379:methods; D003287:Contrast Media; D005260:Female; D006499:Hepatic Artery / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006801:Humans; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D016014:Linear Models; D008099:Liver / Q000098:blood supply / Q000473:pathology; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000145:classification / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000601:surgery; D008297:Male; D011169:Portal Vein / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D011856:Radiographic Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D003287:Contrast Media