Safe and pivotal approaches using contrast-enhanced ultrasound for the diagnostic workup of non-obstetric conditions during pregnancy, a single-center experience

Diagnostic value of enhanced-contrast ultrasound for cesarean scar pregnancy: A systematic review

BACKGROUND

Cesarean scar pregnancy, an uncommon ectopic pregnancy in which the embryo is implanted in the cesarean scar, poses significant risks without prompt diagnosis and treatment. Its prevalence has risen alongside increased cesarean section rates. Despite various treatment approaches, consensus remains elusive. Ultrasonography, particularly contrast-enhanced ultrasonography, shows promise in cesarean scar pregnancy diagnosis.

MAIN BODY

This systematic review, following PRISMA guidelines, explores contrast-enhanced ultrasound's diagnostic potential in cesarean scar pregnancy. We searched PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar up to August 2023. Selection involved two stages: title/abstract screening and full-text assessment. The included studies investigated contrast-enhanced ultrasound's diagnostic value in cesarean scar pregnancy, provided adequate data, and were peer-reviewed in English. Quality assessment followed the QUADAS-2 criteria. We extracted the diagnostic accuracy metrics: sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy. Out of 193 records, five studies met the inclusion criteria (2016-2020, China). Contrast-enhanced ultrasound displayed sensitivities of 77%-100% and specificities of 95%-100%. Two studies reported accuracy of 96.9%-97.8%. Compared with conventional ultrasound, contrast-enhanced ultrasound exhibited superior sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy. It also outperformed transvaginal ultrasound.

CONCLUSION

Enhanced-contrast ultrasound holds promise for diagnosing and managing cesarean scar pregnancy by visualizing scar vascularization in real-time, thereby reducing severe complication risks. This review highlights contrast-enhanced ultrasound as a transformative diagnostic tool for cesarean scar pregnancy management, despite existing evidence limitations.

EASL Clinical Practice Guidelines on the management of liver diseases in pregnancy

Liver diseases in pregnancy comprise both gestational liver disorders and acute and chronic hepatic disorders occurring coincidentally in pregnancy. Whether related to pregnancy or pre-existing, liver diseases in pregnancy are associated with a significant risk of maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality. Thus, the European Association for the Study of Liver Disease invited a panel of experts to develop clinical practice guidelines aimed at providing recommendations, based on the best available evidence, for the management of liver disease in pregnancy for hepatologists, gastroenterologists, obstetric physicians, general physicians, obstetricians, specialists in training and other healthcare professionals who provide care for this patient population.

Imaging of benign gallbladder and biliary pathologies in pregnancy

The rising incidence combined with pregnancy-related physiological changes make gallbladder and biliary pathology high on the differential for pregnant patients presenting with right upper abdominal pain. Imaging plays a crucial role in determining surgical versus non-surgical management in pregnant patients with biliary or gallbladder pathology. Ultrasound (first-line) and magnetic resonance with magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (second-line) are the imaging techniques of choice in pregnant patients with suspected biliary pathology due to their lack of ionizing radiation. MRI/MRCP offers an excellent non-invasive imaging option, providing detailed anatomical detail without known harmful fetal side effects. This article reviews physiological changes in pregnancy that lead to gallstone and biliary pathology, key imaging findings on US and MRI/MRCP, and management pathways.

Ultrasound Image-Based Deep Features and Radiomics for the Discrimination of Small Fat-Poor Angiomyolipoma and Small Renal Cell Carcinoma

We evaluated the performance of ultrasound image-based deep features and radiomics for differentiating small fat-poor angiomyolipoma (sfp-AML) from small renal cell carcinoma (SRCC). This retrospective study included 194 patients with pathologically proven small renal masses (diameter ≤4 cm; 67 in the sfp-AML group and 127 in the SRCC group). We obtained 206 and 364 images from the sfp-AML and SRCC groups with experienced radiologist identification, respectively. We extracted 4024 deep features from the autoencoder neural network and 1497 radiomics features from the Pyradiomics toolbox; the latter included first-order, shape, high-order, Laplacian of Gaussian and Wavelet features. All subjects were allocated to the training and testing sets with a ratio of 3:1 using stratified sampling. The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression model was applied to select the most diagnostic features. Support vector machine (SVM) was adopted as the discriminative classifier. An optimal feature subset including 45 deep and 7 radiomics features was screened by the LASSO model. The SVM classifier achieved good performance in discriminating between sfp-AMLs and SRCCs, with areas under the curve (AUCs) of 0.96 and 0.85 in the training and testing sets, respectively. The classifier built using deep and radiomics features can accurately differentiate sfp-AMLs from SRCCs on ultrasound imaging.

Mimics of cancer in pregnancy

Pregnancy is a remarkable time of pronounced growth and development of the fetus. Benign pathologies outside of the uterus, including those containing hormonally responsive tissue which undergo physiologic changes and other incidentally identified lesions, may mimic malignancy on clinical evaluation and imaging. A detailed history and physical exam, ultrasound and non-contrast magnetic resonance imaging features and comparison with prior imaging if available may help to narrow the list of potential differential diagnoses. Follow-up imaging in the postpartum period is often vital to confirm benignity and, in some cases, sampling to confirm the diagnosis is necessary. This review will cover the clinical, pathological and multimodality imaging features of numerous potential mimickers of cancer in the setting of pregnancy organized by organ systems. The goal is to better equip abdominal radiologists to accurately identify benign disease and help guide further imaging or follow-up recommendations to avoid unnecessarily aggressive intervention and improve patient care.

Contrast Agents during Pregnancy: Pros and Cons When Really Needed

Many clinical conditions require radiological diagnostic exams based on the emission of different kinds of energy and the use of contrast agents, such as computerized tomography (CT), positron emission tomography (PET), magnetic resonance (MR), ultrasound (US), and X-ray imaging. Pregnant patients who should be submitted for diagnostic examinations with contrast agents represent a group of patients with whom it is necessary to consider both maternal and fetal effects. Radiological examinations use different types of contrast media, the most used and studied are represented by iodinate contrast agents, gadolinium, fluorodeoxyglucose, gastrographin, bariumsulfate, and nanobubbles used in contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS). The present paper reports the available data about each contrast agent and its effect related to the mother and fetus. This review aims to clarify the clinical practices to follow in cases where a radiodiagnostic examination with a contrast medium is indicated to be performed on a pregnant patient.

Contemporary Clinical Definitions, Differential Diagnosis, and Novel Predictive Tools for Renal Cell Carcinoma

Despite significant progress regarding clinical detection/imaging evaluation modalities and genetic/molecular characterization of pathogenesis, advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC) remains an incurable disease and overall RCC mortality has been steadily rising for decades. Concomitantly, clinical definitions have been greatly nuanced and refined. RCCs are currently viewed as a heterogeneous series of cancers, with the same anatomical origin, but fundamentally different metabolisms and clinical behaviors. Thus, RCC pathological diagnosis/subtyping guidelines have become increasingly intricate and cumbersome, routinely requiring ancillary studies, mainly immunohistochemistry. Meanwhile, RCC-associated-antigen targeted systemic therapy has been greatly diversified and emerging, novel clinical applications for RCC immunotherapy have already reported significant survival benefits, at least in the adjuvant setting. Even so, systemically disseminated RCCs still associate very poor clinical outcomes, with currently available therapeutic modalities only being able to prolong survival. In lack of a definitive cure for advanced RCCs, integration of the amounting scientific knowledge regarding RCC pathogenesis into RCC clinical management has been paramount for improving patient outcomes. The current review aims to offer an integrative perspective regarding contemporary RCC clinical definitions, proper RCC clinical work-up at initial diagnosis (semiology and multimodal imaging), RCC pathological evaluation, differential diagnosis/subtyping protocols, and novel clinical tools for RCC screening, risk stratification and therapeutic response prediction.

Imaging Cancer in Pregnancy

Pregnancy-associated cancer (PAC) is defined as cancer that is detected during pregnancy and up to 1 year postpartum. Although rare (~1:1000 pregnancies), PAC is increasing owing to postponed childbearing and advanced maternal age at conception. Cancer-related symptoms masked by physiologic gestational changes may delay diagnosis. Imaging, clinical management, and treatment require a carefully choreographed multidisciplinary team approach. The risk-benefit of every imaging modality, the strategies to balance the safety of mother and fetus, and the support of the patient and family at every step are crucial. US and MRI are preferred imaging modalities that lack ionizing radiation. Radiation dose concerns should be addressed, noting that most imaging examinations (including mammography, radiography, CT, and technetium 99m-labeled sulfur colloid sentinel lymph node staging) are performed at radiation levels below thresholds at which deterministic side effects are seen. Dose estimates should be provided after each examination. The use of iodinated intravenous contrast material is safe during pregnancy, but gadolinium-based contrast material should be avoided. Accurate diagnosis and staging combined with gestational age affect decisions about surgery and chemotherapy. Whole-body MRI with diffusion-weighted sequences is ideal to screen for primary and metastatic sites, determine disease stage, identify biopsy targets, and guide further cancer site-specific imaging. The authors provide an update of the imaging triage, safety considerations, cancer-specific imaging, and treatment options for cancer in pregnancy. An invited commentary by Silverstein and Van Loon is available online. Online supplemental material is available for this article. ^©RSNA, 2022.

Diagnosis and Analysis of Transabdominal and Intracavitary Ultrasound in Gynecological Acute Abdomen

In order to explore the effective diagnosis method of gynecological acute abdomen, this paper takes hospital gynecological acute abdomen patients as samples and selects gynecological acute abdomen patients admitted to the hospital to be included in this study. They are divided into transabdominal ultrasound group, intracavitary ultrasound group, and combined group. Moreover, this paper uses mathematical statistics to carry out sample statistics. The statistical data mainly include ectopic pregnancy, torsion of ovarian tumor pedicle, acute suppurative salpingitis, torsion of fallopian tube, hemorrhagic salpingitis, acute pelvic inflammatory disease, rupture of corpus luteum cyst, and diagnosis accuracy rate. In addition, this paper compares the diagnostic accuracy of the abdominal ultrasound group, the intracavitary ultrasound group, and the combined group. The experimental research shows that the combined ultrasound diagnosis method can effectively improve the accuracy of the diagnosis of gynecological acute abdomen.

Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound in Chronic Liver Diseases

Contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) is a safe adjunct tool for liver imaging and can be an alternative to computed tomography or MR imaging. CEUS has a proven track record in guiding management for patients with chronic liver disease who need further evaluation of focal liver lesions. CEUS is a dynamic examination with high temporal and spatial resolution. CEUS uses a pure blood pool contrast agent that allows for a unique evaluation of the perfusion kinetics of a region of interest.

Imaging during pregnancy: What the radiologist needs to know

During the last decades, there has been a growing demand for medical imaging in gravid women. Imaging of the pregnant woman is challenging as it involves both the mother and the fetus and, consequently, several medical, ethical, or legal considerations are likely to be raised. Theoretically, all currently available imaging modalities may be used for the evaluation of the pregnant woman; however, in practice, confusion regarding the safety of the fetus often results in unnecessary avoidance of useful diagnostic tests, especially those involving ionizing radiation. This review article is focused on the current safety guidelines and considerations regarding the use of different imaging modalities in the pregnant population; also presented is an imaging work-up for the most common medical conditions of pregnant women, with emphasis on fetal and maternal safety.

Diagnosis of Interventional Transvaginal Maternal Diseases Based on Color Doppler Ultrasound

In recent years, with the development of color Doppler ultrasound technology in obstetrics, this noninvasive, direct, convenient, and sensitive inspection method has become one of the best methods to observe the fetal circulation in the uterus. This paper discusses the clinical value of using transvaginal color Doppler ultrasound in the differential diagnosis of ovarian corpus luteum disease and ectopic pregnancy disease. This paper selects 100 cases of ectopic pregnancy and 100 cases of pregnant corpus luteum as the experimental research objects. Clinical analysis of transvaginal color Doppler ultrasonography was performed on all patients. In the process of measuring the patient's ectopic pregnancy, the size of the patient's adnexal mass is mainly measured, and the blood flow spectrum is measured. The clinical choice of transvaginal color Doppler ultrasound method to distinguish ectopic pregnancy disease and corpus luteum pregnancy disease can play a significant value. It can be effectively diagnosed according to the type of disease, then effective methods can be studied for clinical treatment, the quality of life of patients with the two diseases can be significantly improved, and the clinical application value of color Doppler ultrasound can be improved.

Structured Reporting in the Characterization of Renal Cysts by Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound (CEUS) Using the Bosniak Classification System-Improvement of Report Quality and Interdisciplinary Communication

BACKGROUND

This study aims to evaluate the potential benefits of structured reporting (SR) compared to conventional free-text reporting (FTR) in contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) of cystic renal lesions, based on the Bosniak classification.

METHODS

Fifty patients with cystic renal lesions who underwent CEUS were included in this single-center study. FTR created in clinical routine were compared to SR retrospectively generated by using a structured reporting template. Two experienced urologists evaluated the reports regarding integrity, effort for information extraction, linguistic quality, and overall quality.

RESULTS

The required information could easily be extracted by the reviewers in 100% of SR vs. 82% of FTR (p < 0.001). The reviewers trusted the information given by SR significantly more with a mean of 5.99 vs. 5.52 for FTR (p < 0.001). SR significantly improved the linguistic quality (6.0 for SR vs. 5.68 for FTR (p < 0.001)) and the overall report quality (5.98 for SR vs. 5.58 for FTR (p < 0.001)).

CONCLUSIONS

SR significantly increases the quality of radiologic reports in CEUS examinations of cystic renal lesions compared to conventional FTR and represents a promising approach to facilitate interdisciplinary communication in the future.

Diagnostic Value of CEUS Prompting Liver Biopsy: Histopathological Correlation of Hepatic Lesions with Ambiguous Imaging Characteristics

Background: Contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) allows for dynamic analysis of vascularization patterns of unclear hepatic lesions. Our study aimed to evaluate the diagnostic performance of CEUS for further characterizing suspicious liver lesions by comparing findings from CEUS examinations with corresponding histopathology. Methods: Between 2005 and 2016, 160 patients with unclear liver lesions underwent CEUS followed by liver biopsy. All examinations were performed by an experienced consultant radiologist (EFSUMB Level 3) and included native B-mode ultrasound, Color Doppler, and CEUS. A second-generation blood pool contrast agent was applied for CEUS. Results: CEUS was successfully performed in all patients without occurrence of any adverse side effects. CEUS showed a sensitivity of 94.5%, a specificity of 70.6%, a true positive rate of 87.3%, and a true negative rate of 85.7% compared to histopathological results as the reference standard. Conclusions: CEUS represents a safe imaging modality with a high diagnostic accuracy in assessing both—benign and malignant—liver lesions compared to corresponding histopathological results.

Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound for Assessing Abdominal Conditions in Pregnancy

Background and objectives: Native ultrasound is the most common imaging modality in obstetrics. The use of contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) during pregnancy has not been officially approved by leading societies for obstetrics and ultrasound. The present study aims to monitor the safety and diagnostic performance of CEUS for assessing abdominal issues in five pregnant women. Materials and Methods: Five pregnant patients who underwent a total of 11 CEUS examinations between June 2020 and October 2020 were included (mean age: 34 years; mean time of pregnancy: 21 weeks). All CEUS scans were interpreted by one experienced consultant radiologist (EFSUMB Level 3). Results: Upon contrast application, no maternal nor fetal adverse effects were observed. Moreover, no fetal contrast enhancement was observed in any patient. CEUS helped to diagnose renal angiomyolipoma, pyelonephritis, necrotic uterine fibroid, gallbladder polyp, and superior mesenteric vein thrombosis. Conclusions: In our study, off-label use of CEUS showed an excellent safety profile allowing the avoidance of ionizing radiation exposure as well as contrast agents in case of CT or use of gadolinium-based contrast agents in case of MRI. CEUS is a promising diagnostic instrument for facilitating clinical decision-making and improving the management of pregnant women.

Benefits of contrast-enhanced ultrasonography for interventional procedures

For evaluating unclear tumorous lesions, contrast-enhanced ultrasonography (CEUS) is an important imaging modality in addition to contrast-enhanced computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging, and may provide valuable insights into the microvascularization of tumors in dynamic examinations. In interventional procedures, CEUS can make a valuable contribution in pre-, peri-, and post-interventional settings, reduce radiation exposure and, under certain circumstances, decrease the number of interventions needed for patients.

Diagnostic Performance of Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound (CEUS) in the Evaluation of Solid Renal Masses

Background: The present study aims to evaluate the diagnostic performance of contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) for discriminating between benign and malignant solid renal masses. Methods: 18 patients with histopathologically confirmed benign solid renal masses (11 oncocytomas, seven angiomyolipomas) as well as 96 patients with confirmed renal cell carcinoma (RCC) who underwent CEUS followed by radical or partial nephrectomy were included in this single-center study. CEUS examinations were performed by an experienced radiologist (EFSUMB Level 3) and included the application of a second-generation contrast agent. Results: Renal angiomyolipomas, oncocytomas, and renal cell carcinomas showed varying sonomorphological characteristics in CEUS. Angiomyolipomas showed heterogeneous echogenicity (57% hypo-, 43% hyperechoic), while all lesions showed rapid contrast-enhancement with two lesions also showing venous wash-out (29%). Notably, 9/11 oncocytomas could be detected in conventional ultrasound (64% hypo-, 9% hyper-, 9% isoechoic) and 2/11 only demarcated upon intravenous application of contrast agent (18%). All oncocytomas showed hyperenhancement in CEUS, venous wash-out was registered in 7/11 lesions (64%). Conclusions: In line with the current state of knowledge, no specific sonomorphological characteristics allowing for accurate distinction between benign and malignant solid renal masses in CEUS could be detected in our study.

Advanced Fusion Imaging and Contrast-Enhanced Imaging (CT/MRI-CEUS) in Oncology

Simple Summary

Fusion imaging depicts an innovative technique by which previously performed computed tomography/magnetic resonance imaging can be integrated and reconstructed with advanced contrast-enhanced ultrasound using modern ultrasound devices in a real-time manner. Fusion imaging allows for complementing strengths and reducing restrictions of the combined imaging modalities. The visualization of parenchymal and tumoral microperfusion by contrast-enhanced ultrasound can be dynamically fused and assessed with images from previous cross-sectional studies and may help to decipher underlying entities of indeterminate lesions or validate suspicious morphology. The findings from our study demonstrate the benefits of fusion imaging for evaluating focal hepatic and renal lesions. The excellent safety profile, accessibility, repeatability and cost-effectiveness are advantages of fusion imaging which make it a powerful diagnostic tool for the modern radiologist.

Abstract

Fusion imaging depicts an innovative technique that facilitates combining assets and reducing restrictions of advanced ultrasound and cross-sectional imaging. The purpose of the present retrospective study was to evaluate the role of fusion imaging for assessing hepatic and renal lesions. Between 02/2011–08/2020, 92 patients in total were included in the study, of which 32 patients had hepatic lesions, 60 patients had renal lesions. Fusion imaging was technically successful in all patients. No adverse side effects upon intravenous (i.v.) application of SonoVue^® (Bracco, Milan, Italy) were registered. Fusion imaging could clarify all 11 (100%) initially as indeterminate described hepatic lesions by computed tomography/magnetic resonance imaging (CT/MRI). Moreover, 5/14 (36%) initially suspicious hepatic lesions could be validated by fusion imaging, whereas in 8/14 (57%), malignant morphology was disproved. Moreover, fusion imaging allowed for the clarification of 29/30 (97%) renal lesions initially characterized as suspicious by CT/MRI, of which 19/30 (63%) underwent renal surgery, histopathology revealed malignancy in 16/19 (84%), and benignity in 3/19 (16%). Indeterminate findings could be elucidated by fusion imaging in 20/20 (100%) renal lesions. Its accessibility and repeatability, even during pregnancy and in childhood, its cost-effectiveness, and its excellent safety profile, make fusion imaging a promising instrument for the thorough evaluation of hepatic and renal lesions in the future.