Evaluation of tissue harmonic imaging for the diagnosis of focal liver lesions.

This was a prospective study to evaluate tissue harmonic imaging (THI) for the diagnosis of focal liver lesions. A total of 15 reviewers read 100 randomly arranged liver images, a fundamental grey-scale image (FGI) and a THI (transmitted: 2 MHz, received: 4 MHz) of each of 50 patients (29 with liver cirrhosis, 42 with focal lesions) taken from the same section. The mean value of overall accuracy for detecting lesions (presence or absence) was significantly higher with THI (82.3%) than with FGI (79.6%) (t = 1. 96, p< 0.05). When only the 29 cirrhosis patients were analyzed, the difference was more significant (t = 2.48, p < 0.02). The correct count rate of the number of focal lesions was higher with THI (78. 0%) than with FGI (67.0%) (t = 3.61, p< 0.005) in 23 cirrhosis patients with focal lesions. The correct diagnosis of HCC was achieved at a higher rate with THI (42.5%) than with FGI (36.8%). THI was statistically effective for detecting focal lesions, particularly in cirrhotic livers.