Comparison between CT and CEUS in the Diagnosis of Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma

Abstract

US/CEUS sensitivity in diagnosing pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma is adequate and does not statistically differ from that of MDCT. US/CEUS sensitivity seems to be higher for small and medium lesions, while MDCT sensitivity is higher for large lesions. By combining both the imaging methods a higher accuracy in diagnosing pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma can be expected.

The value of Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound in the characterization of vascular pattern of solid pancreatic lesions

“…The diagnostic accuracy of CEUS in hypoenhancing pancreatic lesions was 89.1% in our study, which was consistent with the results of studies by Yan et al and D'Onofrio et al [19,20]. In particular, in PAMUS [3] ductal adenocarcinomas were correctly identified with an accuracy of 87.8% based on the hypoenhancing aspect at CEUS.…”

“…The main advantage of CEUS, as compared to other imaging techniques, is the ability to obtain a dynamic study, a real-time observation of blood perfusion of the lesion. With high spatial and temporal resolution for a relatively long time after microbubbles bolus, CEUS tends to gain lot of confidence in the characterization of pancreatic lesions [2,19]. Due to the fixed time of scanning, CE-CT/ MRI cannot capture a transient enhancement.…”

Diagnostic Performance of Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound (CEUS) and Contrast-Enhanced Endoscopic Ultrasound (ECEUS) for the Differentiation of Pancreatic Lesions: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…Although relatively new for the pancreatic evaluation, CEUS represents a safe and feasible technique to immediately better characterize and stage the disease during single US examination [33]. Our review found few studies investigating the vascular pattern of pathologically proven pancreatic tumors and enrolling more than 100 patients [1, 11,12,15,20,26,28]. However, during the last ten years we observed a progressive increase in published papers regarding CEUS of the pancreas.…”

“…The pooled estimate of DOR was 57.63 (95 % CI 33.62 -98.78). CEUS has been shown to be an accurate imaging method in the evaluation of pancreatic lesion vascularity and in the differentiation between solid and cystic lesions, thus influencing the choice of further examinations, as well as being useful in obtaining an immediate and faster diagnosis [3,4,12]. Regarding pancreatic adenocarcinoma a rapid diagnosis is very important.…”

Pancreatic Ultrasound: State of the Art

“…As a consequence, CEUS shows vascularization exactly in real time, allowing a dynamic study of the enhancement pattern, including wash-in and washout. [18][19][20][21][22][23][24] Pancreatic enhancement begins almost at the same time as aortic enhancement due to an almost exclusively glandular arterial supply, giving an early postcontrast phase, called arterial/pancreatic (from 10 to 30 seconds). Then there is the venous phase (from 30 to ≈120 seconds) and the late phase (≈120 seconds).…”