Usefulness of Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasonography for Predicting Esophageal Varices in Patients with Hepatitis B Virus (HBV)-Related Cirrhosis

Abstract

BackgroundThe aim of this study was to investigate the usefulness of contrast-enhanced ultrasonography (CEUS) in predicting of esophageal varices (EV) and assessing high-risk EV in patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related cirrhosis.Material/MethodsPatients with HBV-related cirrhosis who had undergone endoscopy were prospectively recruited. Hepatic dynamic CEUS was performed. Regions of interest (ROI) were drawn on the hepatic artery, hepatic vein, portal vein, and liver parenchyma to measure the corresponding features, such as arrival times. Spearman’s correlation analysis was used to determine the relations between several dynamic CEUS features and the degree of EV. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curves were constructed to investigate the diagnostic performance of CEUS in assessing the presence of EV and high-risk EV.ResultsFifty-eight patients (44 men; mean age 51.3 years) were included in this study. Of these, 18 (31.0%), 12 (20.7%), 11 (19.0%), and 17 (29.3%) of patients had grade 0, 1, 2, and 3 EV, respectively. Grade 2 and grade 3 EV were considered high-risk EV. Among the CEUS features, the area under the ROC curves of intrahepatic transit time (HV–HA, i.e., the difference between hepatic vein arrival time and hepatic artery arrival time) both for assessment of the presence of EV and high-risk EV (0.883 and 0.915, respectively) were larger than the other indices. HV–HA was negatively correlated with the grade of EV. An HV–HA of under 8.2 s indicated the presence of EV and under 7 s indicated high-risk EV.ConclusionsDynamic CEUS imaging is useful in assessing the presence of EV and high-risk EV in patients with HBV-related cirrhosis.

Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasonography with Arrival Time Parametric Imaging as a Non-Invasive Diagnostic Tool for Liver Cirrhosis

“…Over the years, CEUS has also been used to investigate the presence of oesophageal varices (EV) based on time–intensity curves [ 31 , 32 ], and the results show that CEUS can predict EV. CEUS has also been used in animal models to investigate liver fibrosis [ 33 , 34 ], and it was concluded that this method has diagnostic performance for liver fibrosis, similar to our study.…”

Salecan ameliorates liver injury by regulating gut microbiota and its metabolites

“…Alcohol, drugs, and toxic chemical substances may even cause liver cancer. 38 In recent years, the exploration of functional foods that may contribute to alleviating this problem in people with liver disease has attracted considerable attention. In the current research, we observed that salecan supplementation reduced the liver weight to body weight ratio in mice with CCl 4 -induced liver injury, suggesting that salecan treatment could be an approach for maintaining optimal hepatic function.…”

Noninvasive Evaluation of Clinically Significant Portal Hypertension in Patients with Liver Cirrhosis: The Role of Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound Perfusion Imaging and Elastography

“…The recently developed contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) perfusion imaging has markedly expanded the possibilities for detailed hepatic hemodynamics [4]. It has been demonstrated that CEUS-based analysis of the transit time between the hepatic vein (HV) and hepatic artery (HA) or portal vein (PV), can be useful for predicting the grade of PH [5,6,7,8].…”