Back to Journals » International Journal of General Medicine » Volume 4

Diagnosis of hepatoma using grayscale and Doppler ultrasound in patients with chronic liver disease

Authors Memon W, Haider Z, Beg MA, Idris M, Ul-Haq T, Mirza W, Idris SM

Published 31 October 2011 Volume 2011:4 Pages 751—754

DOI https://doi.org/10.2147/IJGM.S25170

Review by Single anonymous peer review

Peer reviewer comments 2



Wasim A Memon, Zishan Haider, Mirza Amanullah Beg, Muhammad Idris, Tanveer-ul-Haq, Waseem Akhtar, Sidra Idris
Radiology Department, Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan
Every author contributed equally to the work

Objective: To determine the diagnostic accuracy of liver ultrasound for the detection of hepatoma in chronic liver disease (CLD) patients by either taking histopathology or serum α-fetoprotein levels or a biphasic computed tomography (CT) scan (whichever is available) as the gold standard.
Study design: Cross-sectional.
Place and duration of study: Radiology Department, The Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan, from January 2007 to January 2010.
Methods: A total of 239 patients (156 males and 83 females) with clinical suspicion or surveillance of hepatoma in CLD referred to the radiology department for ultrasound evaluation followed by either liver biopsy and histopathology or serum α-fetoprotein level or biphasic CT scan.
Results: The sensitivity of ultrasound for hepatoma detection in CLD was 65%, specificity was 85%, and accuracy was 70%, and positive predictive value and negative predictive value were 92% and 45%, respectively.
Conclusion: Ultrasound is a relatively quick, safe, reasonably accurate, and noninvasive imaging modality for the detection of hepatoma in CLD and can be complemented with clinical assessment of screening high-risk patients.

Keywords: hepatoma, ultrasound, radiology, chronic liver disease

Creative Commons License © 2011 The Author(s). This work is published and licensed by Dove Medical Press Limited. The full terms of this license are available at https://www.dovepress.com/terms.php and incorporate the Creative Commons Attribution - Non Commercial (unported, v3.0) License. By accessing the work you hereby accept the Terms. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed. For permission for commercial use of this work, please see paragraphs 4.2 and 5 of our Terms.