New Advances in Contrast-enhanced Ultrasonography for Pancreatic Disease-usefulness of the New Generation Contrast Agent and Contrast-enhanced Ultrasonographic Imaging method-

Abstract

The aim of our study is to evaluate whether Sonazoid® and new sonography technique will be able to be applied in pancreatic diseases and to investigate comparatively CE-US with Levovist®. The subjects were 50 patients with pancreatic diseases. With Sonazoid®, the hemodynamics of a lesion area and its periphery were observed by new sonography technique; with Levovist®, they were observed by conventional methods. The contrast pattern and level of visualization of the microvasculature were evaluated for both agents. Both Sonazoid® and Levovist® produced almost the same contrast pattern in all the patients, however, more detailed contrast images, the structures of the microvasculature in the mass lesion, were obtained with Sonazoid® than Levovist®. The irregular rolling sign was characteristic in malignant mass lesion and useful in differentiating between benign and malignancy. Compared to Levovist®, use of Sonazoid® improved visualization of the hemodynamics by 10% and diagnosis by 9%. The performance of CE-US with Sonazoid® in pancreatic diseases improved the diagnostic capacity better than when Levovist® was used, and was useful in the differential diagnosis.