Acoustic Structure Quantification (ASQ): A New Tool in the Sonographic Diagnosis of Liver
Lesions in Hepatic Alveolar Echinococcosis
Innovation for the Management of EchinococcosisMarch 27, 2014Besançon, France
Tanja Kaltenbach,Dr. Tilmann Gräter,University Hospital UIm Germany
Methods
• Comparative ASQ examination of HAE liver lesions and of healthy liver tissue was performed with Toshiba Aplio 500
• Maximum size of lesions was measured in B-mode and in ASQ mode
• ASQ videos were stored as raw data and used for quantitative analysis with ASQ software
• ASQ parameters Mode, Average, Standard Deviation and FD-Ratio of lesions and of healthy tissue were compared
Patients
• 24 patients (13 women, 11 men)
• mean age 52 years (16 - 85 years)
• mean disease duration 68 months (1– 334 months)
• diagnostically confirmed HAE liver lesion(s)
• fasting at least 6 hours
Examinations
Methods
Quantitative ASQ examination
Example of placing four oval ROIs of similar size in a HAE lesion.
Example of placing four ROIs in healthy liver parenchyma on level with the lesion.
Results
• Subjectively, parasitic tumors in HAE appear more prominent in color-
coded ASQ imaging
• lesions’ size measured in ASQ mode does not differ from size
measured in B-mode
• Median FD-ratio of lesions was 3 (0.1 to 3), compared with 0.5 (0.1 to
1.8) in healthy liver (p < 0.0001)
• Comparison of other ASQ parameters shows highly significant results
Conclusion
• Qualitative and quantitative ASQ is a practical and useful method to
detect structural changes of liver parenchyma in HAE
• FD-ratio can be considered a representative and practical ASQ
parameter indicating tissue alterations in infested parenchyma
• If lesion-specific ASQ reference values can be defined in future long-
term-studies, ASQ technology could provide additional information for
follow up examinations of HAE liver lesions