The Role of Contrast‐Enhanced Ultrasound Plus Color Parametric Imaging in the Differential Diagnosis of Subpleural Pulmonary Lesions

Abstract

ObjectivesTo distinguish benign and malignant subpleural pulmonary lesions (SPLs) with contrast‐enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) and color parametric imaging (CPI), and evaluate the role of CEUS plus CPI in the differential diagnosis of pathological types of SPLs.MethodsOne hundred and thirty‐six patients underwent CEUS with a Logiq E9 XD Clear ultrasonic machine equipped with a 3.5‐ to 5.0‐MHz C5‐1 transducer in our center were enrolled in our study, including 27 cases of benign lesions and 109 cases of malignant lesions. The ultrasound contrast agent used in this study was SonoVue. CEUS images and CPI of all cases were reviewed and analyzed by the resident and staff radiologist groups separately.ResultsWith CEUS alone, by both the two groups, the main enhancement pattern of benign SPLs was arborization (P < .001), while centripetal enhancement pattern occurred more frequently in malignant SPLs (P < .001). With CEUS plus CPI, by both the two groups, the main enhancement pattern of benign SPLs was arborization (P < .001), while those of malignant SPLs were centripetal (P < .001) and eccentric (P < .05). The diagnosis performance of CEUS plus CPI was significantly higher than that of CEUS alone in both the resident (area under the curve [AUC] = 0.857 vs 0.677, P < .001) and staff (AUC = 0.866 vs 0.681, P < .001) groups. Moreover, CPI offered remarkable inter‐consistency improvements in the enhancement pattern determination between the two groups.ConclusionThe CEUS enhancement patterns would provide information of blood perfusion patterns in the differential diagnosis of benign and malignant SPLs. The diagnosis performance could be significantly improved by CEUS plus CPI compared with CEUS alone.