Three-dimensional ultrasound VOCAL combined with contrast-enhanced ultrasound: an alternative to contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging for evaluating ablation of benign uterine lesions

Abstract

Objective This study explores the feasibility and value of three-dimensional ultrasound virtual organ computer-aided analysis (3D-VOCAL) combined with contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) for measuring the non-perfused volume (NPV) after microwave ablation (MWA) of benign uterine lesions.Methods Fifty-six patients with uterine myoma (UM) and adenomyosis (AM) treated with MWA were enrolled. NPV measurements were obtained postoperatively using two-dimensional CEUS (2D-CEUS), 3D-VOCAL combined with CEUS and three-dimensional contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (3D-CEMRI). Bland–Altman analysis and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) values were used to analyze the agreement of NPV measurements obtained via 2D-CEUS and the combined method with 3D-CEMRI. The inter- and intra-observer agreements of the NPV values obtained with all three methods were also analyzed.Results Considering 3D-CEMRI as the standard, 3D-VOCAL showed greater agreement than 2D-CEUS and higher ICCs (ICC, 0.999 vs. 0.891) than 2D-CEUS for different lesion types and sizes of non-perfusion areas (p 0.05) for UM and non-perfusion areas with maximum diameter 0.05). The intra- and inter-observer agreements of 3D-VOCAL measurements were better than those of 2D-CEUS and slightly lower than those of 3D-CEMRI.Conclusions 3D-VOCAL combined with CEUS provides accurate estimates of NPV after MWA of benign uterine lesions, and offers a reliable, simple and efficient alternative to CEMRI.

Keywords

• Benign uterine lesions
• non-perfused volume
• three-dimensional ultrasound VOCAL
• contrast-enhanced ultrasound
• three-dimensional contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging