Title: 0542: Use of Contrast Enhanced Ultrasonography (CEUS) in the Assessment of Focal Liver Lesions in Pediatric Patients
Abstract: CEUS has improved diagnostic capacity of ultrasound (US) in the differential diagnosis of several pathologies in adults. At the present time, there are few controlled studies on the application of CEUS in focal liver diseases in children. AIM of this study was to assess the safety and the accuracy of CEUS in evaluating focal liver lesions in pediatric patients. 35 children (22 males, age range: 5-17 years) with focal liver lesions were investigated. All patients underwent also other concomitant diagnostic methods (Magnetic resonance (MRI), computed tomography (CT), biopsy or surgery). CEUS findings were compared with those obtained by CT and MRI. The final diagnosis were: 2 HCC, 2 LNH, 6 metastasis; 13 angiomas, 4 focal steatosis, 3 liver abscess and 4 IFN. The CEUS performed in these patients proved high correlation diagnosis in 32 out of 35 patients evaluated (91,5%). In all patients weren't observed side effects using this method. These results show diagnostic accuracy of CEUS and high concordance with other more invasive methods of the investigation. In our experience, the addition of CEUS to clinical pratice has significant impact on patient management. In patient with an incidental liver mass on sonography, for example, characterization at time of this detection reduced the time to diagnosis and decreases referrals to CT or MR scan. Ultrasound contrast agents are easy to use, no adverse events were observed in our patients. As they add no radiation for their use, they are highly appropriate in pediatric patients.
Publication Year: 2009
Publication Date: 2009-08-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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