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Hepatic transit time: indicator of the therapeutic response to radiofrequency ablation of liver tumours

¹ Department of Ultrasound, Department of Medicine I, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Ulmenweg 18, D-91054 Erlangen, Germany and ² Ultrasound Department, Union Hospital, Hua Zhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), Wuhan, P. R. China

Correspondence: PD Dr. med. Thomas Bernatik

The aim of this study was to evaluate changes of hepatic transit time (HTT) in patients treated by radiofrequency ablation (RFA). Five consecutive patients (2 females, 3 males; mean age 66 years) referred for treatment of liver neoplasm with percutaneous application of RFA were included in this study. The HTT of contrast agent (Sonovue®; Bracco International B.V., Amsterdam, The Netherlands) was measured in patients with liver metastases on the basis of time intensity curve (TIC®) before and after RFA, respectively. Changes of HTT before vs after RFA were compared with therapeutic response based on three-phase dynamic CT or MRI. Before RFA HTT in all 5 patients was less than 10 s (mean 6.2±1.5 s). After RFA HTT in patients with complete therapeutic response was 11.3±1.2 s, whereas two patients with incomplete treatment showed unchanged HTT below 10 s (mean 6.3±1.8 s). Successful RFA leads to a normalization in HTT. HTT using ultrasound contrast agent appears to provide a new and alternative approach in assessing the therapeutic effect of RFA in liver metastases.