Affiliations: [a] Med. Klinik 2, Caritas Krankenhaus Bad Mergentheim, Bad Mergentheim, Germany
| [b] Département d’Imagerie Médicale, Clinique des Cévennes Annonay, France
| [c] Department of Radiology and Computed Tomography, “Octavian Fodor” Institute of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Cluj-Napoca, Romania; “Iuliu Haţieganu” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
| [d] Diagnostic Radiology Institute, Paula Stradins Clinical University Hospital, Riga, Latvia
| [e] Department of Diagnostic Imaging, Institute of Mother and Child, Warsaw, Poland
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author: Dr. med. Christoph F. Dietrich, Innere Medizin 2, Caritas Krankenhaus, Uhlandstr. 7, D-97980 Bad Mergentheim, Germany. Tel.: +49 7931 58 2201; Fax: +49 7931 58 2290; E-mail: [email protected].
Abstract: The incidental finding of a liver lesion with basic ultrasound is one of the most common clinical issues. Some of the liver lesions which present typical morphological B-mode features (e.g. cysts, typically localized focal fatty sparing/accumulations, hyperechoic hemangiomas) can be easily diagnosed by conventional ultrasound without the need of further diagnostic procedures. Others frequently necessitate further investigation with contrast-enhanced imaging techniques or biopsy in order to differentiate benign from malignant lesions and obtain a final diagnosis. This paper will discuss differences between vascular phases of different cross-sectional contrast-enhanced methods, as well as their subsequent benefits for focal liver lesions (FLLs) assessment, adding also a particular emphasis on small FLLs detection and characterization.
