Evaluation of Diagnostic Accuracy of CEUS for HCC Diagnosis

Evaluation of Diagnostic Accuracy of Contrast-enhanced Ultrasound (CEUS) and Gadoxetic Acid-enhanced Liver MRI for Diagnosis of Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Patients With Liver Cirrhosis

This study aims to compare the diagnostic accuracy of Contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) for diagnosing hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with that of gadoxetic acid-enhanced liver magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) using non-invasive diagnostic criteria (American Association for the Study of Liver Disease (AASLD or Liver Imaging Reporting and Data System (LI-RADS) v2018 and Korean Liver Cancer Study Group- National Cancer Center Korea (KLCSG-NCC) v2018).

Inclusion Criteria:

• High risk group of developing HCC
• hepatic nodule equal to or larger than 1cm on ultrasound or computed tomography (CT)
• newly detected nodule (equal to or larger than 1cm, at least 2cm distance from radiofrequency ablation (RFA) site or resection margin) in patients with history of hepatic resection or RFA for HCC AND in remission more than a year
• scheduled for gadoxetic acid-enhanced liver MRI
• signed informed consent

Exclusion Criteria:

• hypersensitivity for ultrasound contrast media
• pregnancy
• history of recent treatment for HCC in a year
• standard of reference is not available
• severe cardiopulmonary disease (right to left shunt, severe pulmonary hypertension, uncontrolled hypertension, etc)