Liver Cancer
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2004. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Apr 1, 2004; 10(7): 965-967
Published online Apr 1, 2004. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v10.i7.965
Resistance index in differential diagnosis of liver lesions by color doppler ultrasonography
Yan Wang, Wen-Ping Wang, Hong Ding, Bei-Jian Huang, Feng Mao, Zhi-Zhang Xu
Yan Wang, Wen-Ping Wang, Hong Ding, Bei-Jian Huang, Feng Mao, Zhi-Zhang Xu, Department of Ultrasound, Zhongshan Hospital of Shanghai Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China
Author contributions: All authors contributed equally to the work.
Correspondence to: Yan Wang, Department of Function, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang 050000, Hebei Province, China
Received: June 10, 2003
Revised: July 12, 2003
Accepted: August 16, 2003
Published online: April 1, 2004
Abstract

AIM: To investigate the specific value of resistance index (RI) in color Doppler ultrasonography in the diagnosis of focal hepatic lesions.

METHODS: Eight hundred patients with 893 hepatic solid lesions were studied with color Doppler flow imaging (CDFI) and pulsed Doppler, including 644 malignant cases (596 primary malignant liver tumors, and 48 metastatic liver tumors), 156 benign cases. All were confirmed by operation and pathology.

RESULTS: The detection rate of arterial flow in malignant tumors was 92%, and 52% in benign lesions. Doppler spectrum analysis showed that the resistance index in primary malignant tumors was 0.75 ± 0.12, 0.73 ± 0.09 in metastatic tumors, and was below 0.6 in benign lesions. The difference was significant (P < 0.001). This difference was related with its histopathologic structure.

CONCLUSION: The arterial flow with RI ≥0.6 identified by CDFI within the liver lesion can be regarded as a criterion of malignant tumors, RI < 0.6 can be regarded as benign disorders. RI is useful in differential diagnosis of liver neoplasms.

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