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Abstract
Background: One of the most common liver cancers is Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and its early diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis relies on proper evaluation of lesions and vascularity. Triphasic CT and Doppler USG are complementary non-invasive methods of imaging of lesions, assessment of vascular patterns and measurement of hemodynamics.
Objective: To compare triphasic CT and Doppler USG in terms of vascularity assessment of HCC and evaluate the capacity of each of the modalities to identify lesions, characterize the vascular patterns and the Resistive Index (RI).
Methods: The study was an observational, comparative, cross-sectional study at the Liver Clinic, New Muslim Town, Lahore, in a period of three months. The convenience sampling was used to select seventy-three patients. The inclusion criteria were that a patient had to be having at least one liver lesion 1cm in both CT and Doppler USG in the last four weeks. The exclusion criteria were age below 18 years, missing imaging data, non-diagnostic images, previous liver procedures, pregnancy or critical illness. The features of the lesions, vascularity, involvement of portal and hepatic veins, and size and RI were evaluated and compared.
Results: Out of 73 participants, the number of women and men was 52.1 percent and 47.9 percent respectively. Lesions were detected by CT in 43.8 percent and Doppler USG in 52.1 percent of subjects. Lesions were primarily small to medium (0.63 -3.9 cm). Preponderance was on isoenhancing and hypovascular patterns with significant numbers of lesions being Not Visible. The involvement of portal and hepatic veins was 53.4% and 56.2, respectively. The values of RI were relatively medium with very few high values, which means that the lesion population is heterogeneous.