MAXIMUM VALUE MEASURED BY 2-D SHEAR WAVE ELASTOGRAPHY HELPS IN DIFFERENTIATING MALIGNANCY FROM BENIGN FOCAL LIVER LESIONS

The goal of the work described here was to evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of 2-D shear wave elastography (2-D SWE) in differentiating malignancy from benign focal liver lesions (FLLs). The maxima, minima, means and the standard deviations of 2-D SWE measurements, expressed in kilopascals (E-max, E-min, E-mean, E-SD), were obtained for 221 patients with 229 FLLs. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was performed to evaluate the diagnostic performance of 2-D SWE. The Mann-Whitney U-test was used to assess inter-group differences. E-max, E-min, E-mean and E-SD were significantly higher in the 164 malignant lesions than in the 65 benign lesions (p < 0.001). For identification of malignant FLLs, the areas under receiver operating characteristic curves for E-max, E-min, E-mean and E-SD were 0.920, 0.710, 0.879 and 0.915, respectively. E-max was 96.21 +/- 35.40 for 19 intrahepatic cholangiocarcinomas and 90.32 +/- 54.71 for 35 liver metastatic lesions, which were significantly higher than 61.83 +/- 28.87 for 103 hepatocellular carcinomas (p < 0.0001 and p = 0.0237). E-max was 38.72 +/- 18.65 for 15 focal nodular hyperplasias, which was significantly higher than 20.56 +/- 10.74 for 37 hemangiomas (p = 0.0009). The E-max values for adjacent liver parenchyma of hepatocellular carcinomas and intrahepatic cholangiocarcinomas were significantly higher than those for the other three lesion types (p < 0.005). In conclusion, E-max values of FLLs and adjacent liver parenchyma could help in differentiating malignant from benign FLLs. (C) 2016 World Federation for Ultrasound in Medicine & Biology.