Transabdominal Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound Imaging of the Prostate

Abstract

Numerous age-related pathologies affect the prostate gland, the most menacing of which is prostate cancer (PCa). The diagnostic tools for prostate investigation are invasive, requiring biopsies when PCa is suspected. Novel dynamic contrast-enhanced ultrasound (DCE-US) imaging approaches have been proposed recently and appear promising for minimally invasive localization of PCa. Ultrasound imaging of the prostate is traditionally performed with a transrectal probe because the location of the prostate allows for high-resolution images using high-frequency transducers. However, DCE-US imaging requires lower frequencies to induce bubble resonance and, thus, improve contrast-to-tissue ratio. For this reason, in this study we investigate the feasibility of quantitative DCE-US imaging of the prostate via the abdomen. The study included 10 patients (age = 60.7 ± 5.7 y) referred for a needle biopsy study. After having given informed consent, patients underwent DCE-US with both transabdominal and transrectal probes. Time-intensity contrast curves were derived using both approaches and their model-fit quality was compared. Although further improvements are expected by optimization of the transabdominal settings, the results of transabdominal and transrectal DCE-US are closely comparable, confirming the feasibility of transabdominal DCE-US; transabdominal curve fitting revealed an average determination coefficient r(2) = 0.91 (r(2) > 0.75 for 78.6% of all prostate pixels) compared with r(2) = 0.91 (r(2) > 0.75 for 81.6% of all prostate pixels) by the transrectal approach. Replacing the transrectal approach with more acceptable transabdominal scanning for prostate investigation is feasible. This approach would improve patient comfort and represent a useful option for PCa localization and monitoring.

Monodisperse versus Polydisperse Ultrasound Contrast Agents: In Vivo Sensitivity and safety in Rat and Pig

“…The ultrasound conditions used in this study were chosen to mimic clinical reality as close as possible; that is, a commercial ultrasound scanner was used and operated in its standard contrast imaging mode using a commercially available transducer. The selected transmit frequency of 2.5 MHz is typically used for abdominal CEUS imaging (Mischi et al 2015;Dong et al 2016;Hyvelin et al 2017;de Figueiredo et al 2019;Zhang et al 2020). The acoustic performance of the agents was measured both in vitro and in vivo using a diagnostic ultrasound scanner employed with a convex transducer (EPIQ 7G and C9-2, respectively, Philips Ultrasound Inc., WA, USA).…”

Clinical Trial Protocol: Developing an Image Classification Algorithm for Prostate Cancer Diagnosis on Three-dimensional Multiparametric Transrectal Ultrasound

“…Zonal labeling is considered important for several reasons: tissue characteristics of the PZ and TZ lead to differences in tissue stiffness and UCA flow, causing substantial differences in the selected features [13] , [39] , [41] . Additionally, it is well established that the PZ and TZ provide distinct probabilities for the presence of PCa [42] , [43] .…”

Early post-interventional sonographic evaluation of prostatic artery embolization. A promising role for contrast-enhanced ultrasonography (CEUS)

“…We consider however, that in the clini-cal setting of PAE, exquisite detail in the depiction of residual enhancement is not as crucial as in other oncologic applications of CEUS. In another study [10], tr-CEUS and ta-CEUS were utilized to study the prostate before biopsy and to produce time-intensity curves and the results of the two approaches were closely comparable. Since ta-CEUS is less invasive and more comfortable than tr-CEUS, it could partially replace the latter in postinterventional imaging of PAE.…”