• CEUS
• Liver
• Melanoma
• Metastasis
• Ultrasound

• Humans
• Melanoma/diagnostic imaging
• Melanoma/pathology
• Melanoma/secondary
• Uveal Neoplasms/pathology
• Uveal Neoplasms/diagnostic imaging
• Liver Neoplasms/diagnostic imaging
• Liver Neoplasms/secondary
• Image-Guided Biopsy/methods
• Male
• Middle Aged
• Liver/diagnostic imaging
• Liver/pathology
• Ultrasonography, Interventional/methods
• Tomography, X-Ray Computed/methods

• Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna

Liver metastasis of duodenal gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) is rare. Most reports mainly focus on its treatment and approaches to surgical resection, while details on its contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) findings are lacking. The diagnosis and imaging modalities for this condition remain challenging.

A 53-year-old Chinese man presented with mild signs and symptoms of the digestive tract. He underwent routine examinations after GIST surgery. Magnetic resonance imaging showed a 2.3 cm hepatic space-occupying lesion. All the laboratory test results were within normal limits. For further diagnostic confirmation, we conducted high frame rate CEUS (H-CEUS) and found a malignant perfusion pattern. Heterogeneous concentric hyper-enhancement, earlier wash-in than the liver parenchyma, and two irregular vessel columns could be observed at the periphery of the lesion during the arterial phase. Ultrasound-guided puncture biopsy was used to confirm the diagnosis of the lesion as liver metastasis of duodenal GIST. Imatinib was prescribed after biopsy, and the patient’s clinical course was monitored.

H-CEUS is useful for detecting microcirculation differences, wash-in patterns, and vascular morphogenesis and diagnosing liver metastasis of duodenal GIST.

• High frame rate
• Contrast-enhanced ultrasound
• Duodenal gastrointestinal stromal tumor
• Metastatic liver cancer
• Case report

• CD8 positive T lymphocyte
• host immune response
• liver metastasis
• malignant melanoma
• uveal melanoma

AIM: To compare the value of contrast-enhanced ultrasonography (CEUS) vs contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CECT) in assessing the blood supply of liver metastases (LM).

METHODS: Fifty-five patients with LM (70 nodules) who underwent both CEUS and CECT were included. The degree of enhancement in arterial phase, the appearance of vasa vasorum and the classification of the blood supply around the nodule were compared between CEUS and CECT.

RESULTS: The degree of enhancement in arterial phase was more significant for CEUS than for CECT (1: 59% vs 5%; 0: 41% vs 62%; -1: 0% vs 33%) (P < 0.05). The appearance of vasa vasorum around the nodule was significantly more frequent for CEUS than for CECT (54% vs 34%, χ² = 5.674, P = 0.017). The rate of abundant blood supply was 70% for CEUS, significantly higher than that for CECT (30%; χ² = 19.330, P = 0.000).

CONCLUSION: CEUS is better than CECT in evaluation of blood supply of LM.

• Contrast-enhanced ultrasonography
• Liver metastases
• Contrast-enhanced computed tomography