Rare and lacking typical clinical symptoms of liver tumors:Four case reports

BACKGROUND Rare liver tumors(RLTs)have an extremely low likelihood of forming,and some have been recorded only in isolated cases.The lack of normal clinical symptoms in RLTs makes preoperative diagnosis extremely challenging,which results in frequent misinterpretation.The present case report helps enhance our ability to recognize and treat uncommon liver tumor disorders.CASE SUMMARY We describe four distinct examples of rare liver tumor diseases.These cases were all true cases with no conventional clinical signs or imaging findings.In all patients,hepatic occupancy was discovered on physical examination,which raised the preoperative suspicion of hepatic cancer.All tumors were surgically removed,and postoperative histology and immunohistochemistry were performed to confirm the diagnosis.The first patient had primary hepatic fibrosarcoma.The second case involved a primary hepatic neuroendocrine tumors.These two patients had malignant liver tumors,and both had extremely satisfactory surgical outcomes.The third case involved focal hepatic steatosis,and the fourth case involved a single necrotic nodule in the liver.These two patients had benign liver tumors,but they had already undergone surgery and did not require any postoperative care.CONCLUSION The number of patients with RLTs is small,and the clinical and imaging results are vague.Preoperative diagnosis is challenging,and patients are sometimes mistakenly diagnosed with liver cancer,which leads to unnecessary surgical therapy in certain individuals.

Liver Tumor Prediction with Advanced Attention Mechanisms Integrated into a Depth-Based Variant Search Algorithm

In recent days,Deep Learning(DL)techniques have become an emerging transformation in the field of machine learning,artificial intelligence,computer vision,and so on.Subsequently,researchers and industries have been highly endorsed in the medical field,predicting and controlling diverse diseases at specific intervals.Liver tumor prediction is a vital chore in analyzing and treating liver diseases.This paper proposes a novel approach for predicting liver tumors using Convolutional Neural Networks(CNN)and a depth-based variant search algorithm with advanced attention mechanisms(CNN-DS-AM).The proposed work aims to improve accuracy and robustness in diagnosing and treating liver diseases.The anticipated model is assessed on a Computed Tomography(CT)scan dataset containing both benign and malignant liver tumors.The proposed approach achieved high accuracy in predicting liver tumors,outperforming other state-of-the-art methods.Additionally,advanced attention mechanisms were incorporated into the CNN model to enable the identification and highlighting of regions of the CT scans most relevant to predicting liver tumors.The results suggest that incorporating attention mechanisms and a depth-based variant search algorithm into the CNN model is a promising approach for improving the accuracy and robustness of liver tumor prediction.It can assist radiologists in their diagnosis and treatment planning.The proposed system achieved a high accuracy of 95.5%in predicting liver tumors,outperforming other state-of-the-art methods.

Liver Tumors Segmentation Using 3D SegNet Deep Learning Approach

An ultrasonic filter detects signs of malignant tumors by analysing the image’s pixel quality fluctuations caused by a liver ailment.Signs of malignant growth proximity are identified in an ultrasound filter through image pixel quality variations from a liver’s condition.Those changes are more common in alcoholic liver conditions than in other etiologies of cirrhosis,suggesting that the cause may be alcohol instead of liver disease.Existing Two-Dimensional(2D)ultrasound data sets contain an accuracy rate of 85.9%and a 2D Computed Tomography(CT)data set of 91.02%.The most recent work on designing a Three-Dimensional(3D)ultrasound imaging system in or close to real-time is examined.In this article,a Deep Learning(DL)model is implemented and modified to fit liver CT segmentation,and a semantic pixel classification of road scenes is recommended.The architecture is called semantic pixel-wise segmentation and comprises a hierarchical link of encoder-decoder layers.A standard data set was used to test the proposed model for liver CT scans and the tumor accuracy in the training phase.For the normal class,we obtained 100%precision for chronic cirrhosis hepatitis(73%),offset cirrhosis(59.26%),and offensive cirrhosis(91.67%)for chronic hepatitis or cirrhosis(73,0%).The aim is to develop a Computer-Aided Detection(CAD)screening tool to detect steatosis.The results proved 98.33%exactness,94.59%sensitivity,and 92.11%case with Convolutional Neural Networks(CNN)classification.Although the classifier’s performance did not differentiate so clearly at this level,it was recommended that CNN generally perform better due to the good relationship between Area under the Receiver Operating Characteristics Curve(AUC)and accuracy.

Liver Tumor Decision Support System on Human Magnetic Resonance Images:A Comparative Study

Liver cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death worldwide.Early tumor detection may help identify suitable treatment and increase the survival rate.Medical imaging is a non-invasive tool that can help uncover abnormalities in human organs.Magnetic Resonance Imaging(MRI),in particular,uses magnetic fields and radio waves to differentiate internal human organs tissue.However,the interpretation of medical images requires the subjective expertise of a radiologist and oncologist.Thus,building an automated diagnosis computer-based system can help specialists reduce incorrect diagnoses.This paper proposes a hybrid automated system to compare the performance of 3D features and 2D features in classifying magnetic resonance liver tumor images.This paper proposed two models;the first one employed the 3D features while the second exploited the 2D features.The first system uses 3D texture attributes,3D shape features,and 3D graphical deep descriptors beside an ensemble classifier to differentiate between four 3D tumor categories.On top of that,the proposed method is applied to 2D slices for comparison purposes.The proposed approach attained 100%accuracy in discriminating between all types of tumors,100%Area Under the Curve(AUC),100%sensitivity,and 100%specificity and precision as well in 3D liver tumors.On the other hand,the performance is lower in 2D classification.The maximum accuracy reached 96.4%for two classes and 92.1%for four classes.The top-class performance of the proposed system can be attributed to the exploitation of various types of feature selection methods besides utilizing the ReliefF features selection technique to choose the most relevant features associated with different classes.The novelty of this work appeared in building a highly accurate system under specific circumstances without any processing for the images and human input,besides comparing the performance between 2D and 3D classification.In the future,the presented work can be extended to be used in the huge dataset.Then,it can be a reliable,efficient Computer Aided Diagnosis(CAD)system employed in hospitals in rural areas.

Liver Tumor Segmentation Based on Multi-Scale and Self-Attention Mechanism

Liver cancer has the second highest incidence rate among all types of malignant tumors,and currently,its diagnosis heavily depends on doctors’manual labeling of CT scan images,a process that is time-consuming and susceptible to subjective errors.To address the aforementioned issues,we propose an automatic segmentation model for liver and tumors called Res2Swin Unet,which is based on the Unet architecture.The model combines Attention-Res2 and Swin Transformer modules for liver and tumor segmentation,respectively.Attention-Res2 merges multiple feature map parts with an Attention gate via skip connections,while Swin Transformer captures long-range dependencies and models the input globally.And the model uses deep supervision and a hybrid loss function for faster convergence.On the LiTS2017 dataset,it achieves better segmentation performance than other models,with an average Dice coefficient of 97.0%for liver segmentation and 81.2%for tumor segmentation.

Major complications after radiofrequency ablation for liver tumors:Analysis of 255 patients

AIM:To investigate the major complications after radiofrequency ablation(RFA) for the treatment of liver tumors and analyze possible risk factors that precipitate these complications.METHODS:From March 2001 to April 2008,255 patients with liver tumors(205 male,50 female;age range,18-89 years;mean age,56.0 years) who received RFA were enrolled in this study.Of these patients,212 had hepatocellular carcinoma,39 had metastatic liver tumors and four had cholangiocellular carcinoma.One hundred and forty eight patients had a single tumor,and 107 had multiple tumors.Maximum diameter of the tumors ranged 1.3-20 cm(mean,5.1 cm).All patients were treated with a cooled-tip perfusion electrode attached to a radiofrequency generator(Radionics,Burlington,MA,USA).RFA was performed via the percutaneous approach(n = 257),laparoscopy(n = 7),or open surgical treatment(n = 86).The major complications related to RFA were recorded.The resultant data were analyzed to determine risk factors associated these complications.RESULTS:Among the 255 patients,425 liver tumors were treated and 350 RFA sessions were performed.Thirty-seven(10%) major complications were observed which included 13 cases of liver failure,10 cases of hydrothorax requiring drainage,three casesof tumor seeding,one case of upper gastrointestinal bleeding,one case ofintrahepatic abscess,one case of bile duct injury,one case of cardiac arrest,and five cases of hyperglycemia.Seven patients had more than two complications.Liver failure was the most severe complication and was associated with the highest mortality.Eleven patients died due to worsening liver decompensation.Child-Pugh classification(P = 0.001) and choice of approach(P = 0.045) were related to post-treatment liver failure,whereas patient age,tumor size and number were not significant factors precipitating this complication.CONCLUSION:RFA can be accepted as a relatively safe procedure for the treatment of liver tumors.However,attention should be paid to possible complications even though the incidences of these complications are rare.Careful patient selection and the best approach choice(percutaneous,laparoscopy,or laparotomy) will help to minimize the incidence and morbidity rate of complications which occur after RFA.

Cryoablation of malignant liver tumors: results of a single center study

BACKGROUND: Local ablative procedures such as cryo-surgery and thermo-ablation are increasingly employed as a supplement to liver resection for the therapy of primary and secondary liver tumors. It is still unclear if the survival time can be extended through local ablative procedures. This prospective study shows operative actions, complications and long-term follow-up of 19 patients undergoing cryotherapy. METHODS: Between 1997 and 1998, 19 patients underwent cryotherapy due to a non-resectable malignant liver tumor (17 patients with metastases of a colon carcinoma, 2 patients with a hepatocellular carcinoma). Twelve patients (63.2%) received cryotherapy only and seven patients (36.8%) received a combination of resection and cryotherapy. The median follow-up period was 23 months. RESULTS: In a total of 59 liver tumors (18 were resected and 41 received cryotherapy), 12 had cryotherapy only, and 7 had a combination of cryotherapy and resection. The 30-day lethality was 0%, and the rate of major complications was 21%. After one year, 27.3% of the patients were still recurrence- free. The recurrence rate for all tumors treated was 58.8%. The median survival time for all patients was 21 months. The one- and three-year survival rates were 62. 5% and 15.8%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The mortality for cryotherapy is low, but there is a high rate of complications and long-term tumor control is not sufficient. If local ablative procedures of hepatic lesions are to be performed, not laparotomy but percutaneous, percutaneous thermoablation should be discussed as an alternative therapeutic measure.

Functional CT for assessment of early vascular physiology in liver tumors

BACKGROUND: CT perfusion has been reported to have great advantages in detecting hepatic diseases. However, currently there are no studies showing the potential value of multi-slice CT perfusion with the deconvolution model method in diagnosing early hemodynamic changes caused by liver tumors. This study was undertaken to determine if early hemodynamic changes caused by liver tumors can be depicted with the perfusion imaging of multi-slice CT. METHODS: Ten New Zealand white rabbits before and after VX2 liver tumor inoculation served as the experimental animals. Ten normal rabbits served as controls. All underwent multi-slice CT perfusion for the measurement of hepatic blood flow (HBF), hepatic blood volume (HBV), mean transit time (MTT), permeability of capillary vessel surface (PS) and hepatic artery index (HAI). RESULTS: With the exception of MTT, which decreased significantly at the tumor periphery, HBF, HBV,. PS and HAI increased significantly compared with the surrounding normal tissue. All these changes occurred at days 5-9 after tumor inoculation. Statistically significant changes in these values were detected with tumor growth. CONCLUSIONS: The hemodynamic changes in the liver caused by rabbit VX2 liver tumor can be detected after tumor inoculation, and functional CT can evaluate the physiological characteristics of early tumor angiogenesis.

Hepatic progenitor cells in human liver tumor development

In recent years, the results of several studies suggest that human liver tumors can be derived from hepatic progenitor cells rather than from mature cell types. The available data indeed strongly suggest that most combined hepatocellular-cholangiocarcinomas arise from hepatic progenitor cells that retained their potential to differentiate into the hepatocytic and biliary lineages. Hepatic progenitor cells could also be the basis for some hepatocellular carcinomas and hepatocellular adenomas, although it is very difficult to determine the origin of an individual hepatocellular carcinoma. There is currently not enough data to make statements regarding a hepatic progenitor cell origin of cholangiocarcinoma. The presence of hepatic progenitor cell markers and the presence and extent of the cholangiocellular component are factors that are related to the prognosis of hepatocellular carcinomas and combined hepatocellular- cholangiocarcinomas, respectively.

Adiponectin deficiency enhances colorectal carcinogenesis and liver tumor formation induced by azoxymethane in mice

AIM:To investigate the causal relationship between hypoadiponectinemia and colorectal carcinogenesis in in vivo experimental model,and to determine the con-tribution of adiponectin defi ciency to colorectal cancer development and proliferation.METHODS:We examined the influence of adiponectin defi ciency on colorectal carcinogenesis induced by the administration of azoxymethane(AOM)(7.5 mg/kg,in-traperitoneal injection once a week for 8 wk),by using adiponectin-knockout(KO) mice.RESULTS:At 53 wk after the fi rst AOM treatment,KOmice developed larger and histologically more progres-sive colorectal tumors with greater frequency com-pared with wild-type(WT) mice,although the tumor incidence was not different between WT and KO mice.KO mice showed increased cell proliferation of colorec-tal tumor cells,which correlated with the expression levels of cyclooxygenase-2(COX-2) in the colorectal tumors.In addition,KO mice showed higher incidence and frequency of liver tumors after AOM treatment.Thirteen percent of WT mice developed liver tumors,and these WT mice had only a single tumor.In contrast,50% of KO mice developed liver tumors,and 58% of these KO mice had multiple tumors.CONCLUSION:Adiponectin deficiency enhances colorectal carcinogenesis and liver tumor formation induced by AOM in mice.This study strongly suggests that hypoadiponectinemia could be involved in the pathogenesis for colorectal cancer and liver tumor in human subjects.

Evaluation of quantitative contrast harmonic imaging to assess malignancy of liver tumors:A prospective controlled two-center study

AIM: To establish the extent to which contrast enhancement with SonoVue in combination with quantitative evaluation of contrast-medium dynamics facilitates the detection of hepatic tumors. METHODS: One hundred patients with histologically confirmed malignant or benign hepatic tumor (maximum size 5 cm) were analyzed. Contrast-enhanced ultrasound (bolus injection 2.5 mL SonoVue) was carried out with intermittent breath-holding technique using a multifrequency transducer (2.5-4 MHz). Native vascularization was analyzed with power Doppler. The contrast-enhanced dynamic ultrasound investigation was carried out with contrast harmonic imaging in true detection mode during the arterial,portal venous and late phases. Mechanical index was set at 0.15. Perfusion analysis was performed by post-processing of the raw data time intensity curve (TIC) analysis. The cut-off of the gray value differences between tumor and normal liver tissue was established using Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis 64-line multi-slice computed tomography served as reference method in all cases. Magnetic resonance tomography was used additionally in 19 cases. RESULTS: One hundred patients with 59 malignant (43 colon,5 breast,2 endocrine metastases,7 hepatocellular carcinomas and 2 kidney cancers) and 41 benign (15 hemangiomas,7 focal nodular hyperplasias,5 complicated cysts,2 abscesses and 12 circumscribed fatty changes) tumors were included. The late venous phase proved to be the most sensitive for classification of the tumor type. Fifty-eight of the 59 malignant tumors were classified as true positive,and one as false negative. This resulted in a sensitivity of 98.3%. Of the 41 benign tumors,37 were classified as true negative and 4 as false negative,which corresponds to a specificity of 90.2%. Altogether,95.0% of the diagnoses were classified as correct on the basis of the histological classification. No investigator-dependency (P = 0.23) was noted. CONCLUSION: The results show the possibility of accurate prediction of malignancy of hepatic tumors with a positive prognostic value of 93.5% using advanced contrast-enhanced ultrasound. Contrast enhancement with SonoVue in combination with quantitative evaluation of contrast-medium dynamics is a valuable tool to discriminate hepatic tumors.

Contrast-enhanced 3D ultrasound in the radiofrequency ablation of liver tumors

Liver metastases and hepatocellular carcinomas are two of the most common causes of cancer deaths in the world.Radiofrequency ablation(RFA) is a well recognized,effective and minimally invasive means of treating malignant hepatic tumors.This article describes the use of contrast-enhanced 3D ultrasound(CE-3DUS) in the staging,targeting and follow-up of patients with liver tumors undergoing RFA.In particular,its value in the management of large hepatic lesions will be illustrated.Current limitations of CE-3DUS and future developments in the technique will also be discussed.In summary,CE-3DUS is useful in the RFA of liver tumors with improved detection and display of occult lesions and recurrence,in the assessment of lesional geometry and orientation for a more accurate planning and guidance of multiple RFA needle electrodes in large tumors and in the evaluation of residual or recurrent disease within the immediate and/or subsequent follow-up periods.

Early changes of hepatic hemodynamics measured by functional CT perfusion in a rabbit model of liver tumor

BACKGROUND:Early detection and treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma is crucial to improving the patients’ survival.The hemodynamic changes caused by tumors can be serially measured using CT perfusion.In this study,we used a CT perfusion technique to demonstrate the changes of hepatic hemodynamics in early tumor growth,as a proof-of-concept study for human early hepatocellular carcinoma.METHODS:VX2 tumors were implanted in the liver of ten New Zealand rabbits.CT perfusion scans were made 1 week(early) and 2 weeks(late) after tumor implantation.Ten normal rabbits served as controls.CT perfusion parameters were obtained at the tumor rim,normal tissue surrounding the tumor,and control liver;the parameters were hepatic blood flow,hepatic blood volume,mean transit time,permeability of capillary vessel surface,hepatic arterial index,hepatic arterial perfusion and hepatic portal perfusion.Microvessel density and vascular endothelial growth factor were correlated.RESULTS:At the tumor rim,compared to the controls,hepatic blood flow,hepatic blood volume,permeability of capillary vessel surface,hepatic arterial index,and hepatic arterial perfusion increased,while mean transit time and hepatic portal perfusion decreased on both early and late scans(P<0.05).Hepatic arterial index increased(135%,P<0.05),combined with a sharp increase in hepatic arterial perfusion(182%,P<0.05) and a marked decrease in hepatic portal perfusion(-76%,P<0.05) at 2 weeks rather than at 1 week(P<0.05).Microvessel density and vascular endothelial growth factor showed significant linear correlations with hepatic blood flow,permeability of capillary vessel surface and hepatic arterial index,but not with hepatic blood volume or mean transit time.CONCLUSION:The CT perfusion technique demonstrated early changes of hepatic hemodynamics in this tumor model as proof-of-concept for early hepatocellular carcinoma detection in humans.

Tumor angiogenesis and its clinical significance in pediatric malignant liver tumor

AIM: To investigate the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and microvascular density (MVD) count in pediatric malignant liver tumor and their clinical significances. METHODS: Fourteen children with malignant liver tumors including seven hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs), five hepatoblastomas, one malignant mesenchymoma and one rhabdomyosarcoma were studied. Twelve adult HCC samples served as control group. All samples were examined with streptavidin-biotin peroxidase (SP) immunohistochemical staining for VEGF expression and MVD count. RESULTS: VEGF positive expression in all pediatric malignant liver tumors was significantly higher than that in adult HCC (0.4971±0.14 vs0.4027±0.03, P<0.05). VEGF expression in pediatric HCC group was also markedly higher than that in adult HCC group (0.5665±0.10 vs0.4027±0.03, P<0.01) and pediatric non-HCC group (0.5665±0.10 vs 0.4276±0.15, P<0.05). The mean value of MVD in pediatric malignant liver tumors was significantly higher than that in adult HCC (33.66±12.24 vs 26.52±4.38, P<0.05). Furthermore, MVD in pediatric HCC group was significantly higher compared to that in adult HCC group (36.94±9.28 vs 26.52±4.38, P<0.05), but there was no significant difference compared to the pediatric non-HCC group (36.94±9.28 vs 30.37±14.61, P>0.05). All 7 children in HCC group died within 2 years, whereas the prognosis in pediatric non-HCC group was better, in which two patients survived more than 5 years. CONCLUSION: Children with malignant liver tumors, especially with HCC, may have extensive angiogenesis that induces a rapid tumor growth and leads to a poor prognosis.

Contrast-enhanced ultrasonography parameters in neural network diagnosis of liver tumors

AIM:To study the role of time-intensity curve(TIC) analysis parameters in a complex system of neural networks designed to classify liver tumors.METHODS:We prospectively included 112 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC)(n = 41),hypervascular(n = 20) and hypovascular(n = 12) liver metastases,hepatic hemangiomas(n = 16) or focal fatty changes(n = 23) who underwent contrast-enhanced ultrasonography in the Research Center of Gastroenterology and Hepatology,Craiova,Romania.We recorded full length movies of all contrast uptake phases and post-processed them offline by selecting two areas of interest(one for the tumor and one for the healthy surrounding parenchyma) and consecutive TIC analysis.The difference in maximum intensities,the time to reaching them and the aspect of the late/portal phase,as quantified by the neural network and a ratio between median intensities of the central and peripheral areas were analyzed by a feed forward back propagation multi-layer neural network which was trained to classify data into five distinct classes,corresponding to each type of liver lesion.RESULTS:The neural network had 94.45% training accuracy(95% CI:89.31%-97.21%) and 87.12% testing accuracy(95% CI:86.83%-93.17%).The automatic classification process registered 93.2% sensitivity,89.7% specificity,94.42% positive predictive value and 87.57% negative predictive value.The artificial neural networks(ANN) incorrectly classified as hemangyomas three HCC cases and two hypervascular metastases,while in turn misclassifying four liver hemangyomas as HCC(one case) and hypervascular metastases(three cases).Comparatively,human interpretation of TICs showed 94.1% sensitivity,90.7% specificity,95.11% positive predictive value and 88.89% negative predictive value.The accuracy and specificity of the ANN diagnosis system was similar to that of human interpretation of the TICs(P = 0.225 and P = 0.451,respectively).Hepatocellular carcinoma cases showed contrast uptake during the arterial phase followed by wash-out in the portal and first seconds of the late phases.For the hypovascular metastases did not show significant contrast uptake during the arterial phase,which resulted in negative differences between the maximum intensities.We registered wash-out in the late phase for most of the hypervascular metastases.Liver hemangiomas had contrast uptake in the arterial phase without agent wash-out in the portallate phases.The focal fatty changes did not show any differences from surrounding liver parenchyma,resulting in similar TIC patterns and extracted parameters.CONCLUSION:Neural network analysis of contrastenhanced ultrasonography-obtained TICs seems a promising field of development for future techniques,providing fast and reliable diagnostic aid for the clinician.

Liver transplantation for benign liver tumors

Benign liver tumors are common lesions that are usually asymptomatic and are often found incidentally due to recent advances in imaging techniques and their widespread use.Although most of these tumors can be managed conservatively or treated by surgical resection,liver transplantation(LT)is the only treatment option in selected patients.LT is usually indicated in patients that present with life-threatening complications,when the lesions are diffuse in the hepatic parenchyma or when malignant transformation cannot be ruled out.However,due to the significant postoperative morbidity of the procedure,scarcity of available donor liver grafts,and the benign course of the disease,the indications for LT are still not standardized.Hepatic adenoma and adenomatosis,hepatic hemangioma,and hepatic epithelioid hemangioendothelioma are among the most common benign liver tumors treated by LT.This article reviews the role of LT in patients with benign liver tumors.The indications for LT and long-term outcomes of LT are presented.

Liver tumors in children with chronic liver diseases

Liver tumors are rare in children,but the incidence may increase in some circumstances and particularly in chronic liver diseases.Most liver tumors consequent to chronic liver diseases are malignant hepatocellular carcinoma.Other liver tumors include hepatoblastoma,focal nodular hyperplasia,adenoma,pseudotumor,and nodular regenerative hyperplasia.Screening of suspected cases is beneficial.Imaging and surrogate markers of alpha-fetoprotein are used initially as noninvasive tools for surveillance.However,liver biopsy for histopathology evaluation might be necessary for patients with inconclusive findings.Once the malignant liver tumor is detected in children with cirrhosis,liver transplantation is currently considered the preferred option and achieves favorable outcomes.Based on the current evidence,this review focuses on liver tumors with underlying chronic liver disease,their epidemiology,pathogenesis,early recognition,and effective management.

Potential application of ultrasound-guided thermal ablation in rare liver tumors

Background: With the advances of imaging techniques, the detection rate of rare liver tumor is increased. However, the therapeutic strategies of the rare liver tumors remain limited. Methods: We analyzed twelve pathologically confirmed rare liver tumors in 8 patients. All of the patients underwent ultrasound(US) guided biopsy and subsequent thermal ablation. The tumors were ablated according to the preoperative plans and monitored by real-time US. CT/MRI fused with contrast enhanced US(CEUS) or three-dimensional(3 D) US-CEUS images were used to guide and assess the ablation zone more accurately during thermal ablation. The rate of technical efficacy was assessed based on the contrast-enhance CT/MRI(CECT/MRI) results one month after ablation. Local tumor progression(LTP), recurrence and complications were followed up and recorded. Results: Among these twelve nodules, nine were subject to US-guided thermal ablation, whereas the other three inconspicuous nodules were subject to CEUS-guided thermal ablation. Intra-procedure CT/MRI-CEUS or 3 D US-CEUS fusion imaging assessments demonstrated that the ablation zone sufficiently covered the original tumor, and no immediate supplementary ablation was required. Additionally, no major complications were observed during the follow-up period. The postoperative CECT/MRI confirmed that the technique success rate was 100%. Within the surveillance period of 13 months, no LTP or recurrence was noted. Conclusions: US-guided thermal ablation was feasible and safe for rare liver tumors. The use of fusion imaging technique might make US-guided thermal ablation as effective as surgical resection, and this technique might serve as a potential therapeutic modality for rare liver tumors in the future.

Usefulness of Y-shaped sheaths in CT angiography for examination of liver tumors

AIM: To conduct a single-stage, combined computed tomography (CT) arterial portography (CTAP) and CT arteriography (CTA) imaging operation, we used Y-shaped sheaths with 2 valves, which allowed the insertion of 2 catheters simultaneously. METHODS: Of 1254 patients who underwent abdominal angiography for transarterial embolization and/or intraarterial chemotherapy in our department from May 2002 to November 2009, 664 patients in whom Y-shaped sheaths with 2 valves were used underwent CT angiography using a combination of CTA and CTAP. The Seldinger method was used to insert a 10 cm Y-shaped short sheath with 2 valves into the femoral artery. Under radiographic guidance, a 3.2 French (Fr) catheter was placed in the celiac artery or proper hepatic artery, and a second 3.2 Fr catheter was then placed distal to the inferior pancreaticoduodenal artery of the superior mesenteric artery. CTAP was then performed followed by CTA 10 min later. Photographs were taken during the early and late phases of the procedure.RESULTS: Insertion of 3.2 Fr catheters was not possible in 6 of 664 (0.9%) patients with strong curvature of the femoral artery and 4 of 664 (0.6%) patients with strong curvature of the abdominal aorta. In addition, performing CTAP and CTA as a single-stage combined intervention was not possible in 14 of 664 (2.1%) patients whose right hepatic artery originated from the superior mesenteric artery and in 8 of 664 (1.2%) patients whose left hepatic artery branched from the left gastric artery. There were no sheath-related complications such as those related to arterial dissection or hemostasis. CONCLUSION: Although transfers to and from the CT room were necessary for anatomically variant patients, CT angiography using the Y-shaped sheath for combined CTAP and CTA was considered useful.

Liu-stain quick cytodiagnosis of ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration in diagnosis of liver tumors

AIM： To combine ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration （US-FNA） and Liu （Riu） stain to make a quick study on liver tumor lesions. METHODS： Two hundred and twenty-eight aspirations from 232 patients were completely studied. The operator himself made the quick cytodiagnosis of US-FNA smear stained by Liu method within thirty minutes. The US-FNA specimen was also sent to the pathological department for cytological study and cellblock histology. The result of our Uu-stain quick cytodiagnosis in each patient was confirmed by the final cytopathological diagnosis from pathological report. RESULTS： Among 228 samples, the quick cytodiagnosis revealed 146 malignancies, 81 benign lesions and one inadequate specimen. Cytopathological diagnosis from the pathological department revealed 150 malignancies, and 78 benign lesions. Four well-differentiated hepatocellular carcinomas （HCCs） were under-diagnosed by quick cytodiagnosis as benign and 3 benign lesions were over-diagnosed as well-differentiated HCCs. Compared with cytopathological diagnosis, quick cytodiagnosis correctly diagnosed 143 malignancies and 77 benign lesions. Except for the one inadequate specimen in quick cytodiagnosis, the accuracy of quick cytodiagnosis was 96.9% （220/227）, and its sensitivity, specificity and positive and negative predictive values were 97.9%, 95.1%, 97.3% and 96.3%, respectively. CONCLUSION： Liu-stain quick cytodiagnosis is a fast, convenient, safe and effective method for hepatologists in clinic practice to diagnose liver tumor. In few cases of well-differentiated HCC, Liu-stain quick cytodiagnosis has its limitation.