Ultrasonographic examination of the liver circulation in patients with liver metastasis from colorectal cancer

Purpose: Conventional imaging modalities are presently recommended for the detection of liver metastases. However the presence of liver micrometastases is a major diagnostic problem. It has been known that micrometastases could be associated with changes in the liver bloodflow. Methods: We examined several parameters by color Doppler ultrasound to estimate hepatic artety flow in 30 patients without and 17 patients with liver metastases from colon cancer Results: Mean values of hepatic artery diameter (4.25 +/- 0.81 mm in patients with liver metastases were not statistically different from those in patients without metastases (3.98 +/- 0.81). Patients with liver metastasis had significantly higher (p=0.007) mean values of systolic speed (61.33 +/- 30.01 cm/s) in comparison to patients without metastasis (41.38 +/- 16 cm/s). Conclusion: Based on these results we suggest that color Doppler examination can be an additional quick non-invasive method in the detection of circulatory changes in the estimation of liver metastases.