Objective: To investigate the elasticity change of ablative lesions resulting from radiofrequency ablation(RFA) in vitro liver and in vivo liver by real-time elastography(RTE), evaluate RTE in depicting circumscription of ablative lesions. Materials and Methods: Five in vitro porcine livers and twenty rabbits livers were chosen for this study. Twenty ablative lesions were obtained using RFA under ultrasound guidance in each experiment. After RFA, RTE was performed. The maximum vertical diameter and transverse diameter of ablative lesions were taken on RTE image and compared with the measurements obtained from pathologic examination. Results: Homogeneous blue and distinct circumscription from liver tissue was showed on RTE image of all ablative lesions performed RFA in experiments. Pearson correlation analysis demonstrated that the area of ablative lesions measured on RTE image performed after RFA correlated well with the measurement on macropathology specimen(r=0.91, P＜0.05) in vitro liver experment. And Spearman correlation analysis demonstrated that the area of ablative lesions measured on RTE image performed after RFA correlated well with the measurement on macropathology correlated(r=0.49, P＜0.05) in vivo liver experment. Conclusions: RTE may be reliable for depicting the circumscription of the RFA lesions. RTE may be the effective method for evaluating RFA lesions.
PENG Jin-bo;YANG Hong;HE Yun;QIN Xiao-xi.
The value of real-time elastography in evaluating the effect of radiofrequency ablativetreatment in liver lesions: an experimental study[J]. Journal of China Clinic Medical Imaging. 2014, 25(3): 176-178
