Purpose: To identify the most appropriate time delay after microbubble contrast agent injection to maximize liver metastasis conspicuity on contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS).
Methods: Twenty-five consecutive patients (12 male and 13 female; age: 50 ± 13 years) with a known primary tumor and evidence of liver metastases on unenhanced ultrasound (US) underwent CEUS. CEUS consisted of continuous liver parenchyma scanning during arterial (15-35 s after microbubble injection), portal venous (40-120 s), and late phase (from 120 s up to microbubble disappearance). Subjective conspicuity index (ranging from 1 to 5) and objective conspicuity index (Ilesion-Iliver/Iliver, I = signal intensity) were calculated on reference frames selected on arterial phase and every 20 s on portal venous and late phase.
Results: A total number of 40 liver metastases were identified after microbubble injection. The highest liver metastasis conspicuity was observed on early portal venous phase (40-60 s after microbubble injection) both on visual (mean subjective conspicuity index ± standard deviation [SD] = 4.36 ± 0.75, reader 1; 4.25 ± 0.65, reader 2) and quantitative analysis (mean objective conspicuity index ± SD = -0.99 ± 0.001).
Conclusion: The early portal venous phase (40-60 s after microbubble injection) provides the best liver metastases' conspicuity after microbubble contrast agent injection.
Keywords: Liver; metastasis; microbubble contrast agent.