Contact ultrasonography in the detection of liver metastases from colorectal cancer: An in vitro study

✍ Scribed by W. M. Thomas; Mr. D. L. Morris; J. D. Hardcastle

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1987
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 256 KB
• Volume: 74
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0007-1323
• DOI: 10.1002/bjs.1800741024

✦ Synopsis

Occult hepatic metastases (OHM) may be present in a quarter of patients undergoing apparently curvative surgery for colorectal cancer'.

Apart from the encouraging Glasgow experience of serial ultrasound and CT which detected OHM in > 20 per cent of patients', the other promising means of detecting OHM is the hepatic perfusion index, which produces a dynamic radioisotope hepatic scan in which the arterial and venous phases of hepatic blood supply are studied and compared with those of the kidney. It seems that patients with an abnormal HPI usually go on to develop obvious hepatic metastases'. Intra-operative contact ultrasound (CUS) is a relatively new technique which has been advocated for the detection of occult hepatic metastases. The aim of our study in uitro was to try and define the minimum diameter of hepatic metastases which CUS can detect.