Ren J, Wu T, Zheng BW, Tan YY, Zheng RQ, Chen GH. Application of contrast-enhanced ultrasound after liver transplantation: Current status and perspectives. World J Gastroenterol 2016; 22(4): 1607-1616 [PMID: 26819526 DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i4.1607]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Gui-Hua Chen, Professor, Department of Liver Transplantation, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, No. 600 Tianhe Road, Guangzhou 510630, Guangdong Province, China. ghchen_gzsums@163.com
Research Domain of This Article
Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging
Article-Type of This Article
Topic Highlight
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Gastroenterol. Jan 28, 2016; 22(4): 1607-1616 Published online Jan 28, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i4.1607
Application of contrast-enhanced ultrasound after liver transplantation: Current status and perspectives
Jie Ren, Tao Wu, Bo-Wen Zheng, Ying-Yi Tan, Rong-Qin Zheng, Gui-Hua Chen
Jie Ren, Tao Wu, Bo-Wen Zheng, Ying-Yi Tan, Rong-Qin Zheng, Department of Ultrasound, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510630, Guangdong Province, China
Gui-Hua Chen, Department of Liver Transplantation, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510630, Guangdong Province, China
Author contributions: Ren J and Wu T contributed to the work equally and should be regarded as co-first authors; Ren J and Wu T conceived this work, performed the literature search and selection, and wrote initial draft of the manuscript; Zheng BW, Tan YY, Zheng RQ and Chen GH discussed and revised the manuscript critically for important intellectual content; all authors discussed the statement and conclusions, and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81371554; and Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangdong Province of China, No. 2013B021800092.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No potential conflicts of interest relevant to this article were reported.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Gui-Hua Chen, Professor, Department of Liver Transplantation, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, No. 600 Tianhe Road, Guangzhou 510630, Guangdong Province, China. ghchen_gzsums@163.com
Telephone: +86-20-85252010 Fax: +86-20-85252374
Received: May 28, 2015 Peer-review started: May 31, 2015 First decision: September 11, 2015 Revised: October 14, 2015 Accepted: November 24, 2015 Article in press: November 24, 2015 Published online: January 28, 2016 Processing time: 237 Days and 3 Hours
Abstract
Liver transplantation is an effective treatment for patients with end-stage liver disease. Accurate imaging evaluation of the transplanted patient is critical for ensuring that the limited donor liver is functioning appropriately. Ultrasound contrast agents (UCAs), in combination with contrast-specific imaging techniques, are increasingly accepted in clinical use for the assessment of the hepatic vasculature, bile ducts and liver parenchyma in pre-, intra- and post-transplant patients. We describe UCAs, their technical requirements, the recommended clinical indications, image interpretation and the limitations for contrast-enhanced ultrasound applications in liver transplantation.
Core tip: We performed a review of the recent literature on the current status and perspectives of contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) for liver transplantation. We emphasize some evidence-based diagnostic algorithms to guide clinicians in the assessment of complications. CEUS reduces the need for invasive procedures. Ultrasound is useful for screening for liver transplantation, and the use of CEUS provides more information to enhance the operator’s diagnostic confidence.
