Value of contrast-enhanced ultrasound for preoperative assessment of liver reserve function in patients with liver tumors.

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the value of contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) for preoperative assessment of liver reserve function in patients with liver tumors. The indocyanine green (ICG) clearance tests and CEUS examinations of 45 noncirrhotic patients with liver tumors were performed prior to liver resection. Parameters time to peak (TtoPk), arrival time (Atm) as well as perfusion parameters A, k and A x k were generated from time-intensity curve (TIC) of CEUS. The correlation analyses of the ICG clearance per unit time (ICGK) and the retention rate at 15 min (ICGR15) with TtoPk, Atm, A, k and A x k were performed, and the diagnostic ability as well as optimal cut-off values of TtoPk and Atm for differentiating patients with ICGR15>10% from ICGR1510% and ICGR1510% verusus ICGR1510% vs ICGR15, the optimal cut-off values of TtoPk and Atm were 13.307 s and 11.007 s, respectively, while the sensitivity and specificity were 75.0% and 72.7%, 60.6% and 75.0%, respectively. This study revealed that CEUS has the potential to be a new method to evaluate the liver reserve function of patients. With the optimal cut-off values of TtoPk and Atm, qualitative assessment of patients with ICGR15>10% could be more easily achieved by CEUS with good diagnostic abilities.