Liver metastases: Contrast-enhanced ultrasound compared with computed tomography and magnetic resonance

Table 1 Clinical studies of contrast enhanced ultrasound efficacy for liver metastases detection, in comparison with ultrasound

Ref.	patients(n)	Standard of reference	Sensitivity		Specificity
			US	CEUS	US	CEUS
Itabashi et al[62], 2013	454	Pathology	Intra-operative CEUS found 71 CRLMs that were not detected at preoperative imaging
Muhi et al[60], 2011	106	Histology, follow up CT, SPIO/ GdEOB MRI	-	73	-	-
Cantisani et al[59], 2010	110	IOUS, CT, follow up CT, MRI	71.6	95.8	60.0	83.3
Larsen et al[65], 2009	365	Histology, follow up CT	-	80	-	98.0
Piscaglia et al[66], 2007	107	CT, FNA, follow up	0.77	0.95	-	-
Konopke et al[57], 2007	100	IOUS	0.56	0.84	0.93	0.84
Larsen et al[67], 2007	365	FNA, CT, IOUS	0.69	0.80	0.98	0.98
Janica et al[68], 2007	51	CT, FNA, follow up	0.63	0.90	-	-
Dietrich et al[69], 2006	131	CT, MRI, FNA, follow up	0.81	0.91	-	-
Quaia et al[70], 2006	253	FNA, CT, MRI, IOUS	0.40	0.83	0.63	0.84
Konopke et al[71], 2005	56	IOUS, FNA, CT	0.53	0.86	0.89	0.89
Oldenburg et al[72], 2005	40	CT, MRI	0.69	0.90	-	-
Albrecht et al[73], 2003	123	CT, MRI, IOUS, FNA	0.94	0.98	0.60	0.88
Solbiati et al[11], 2001	32	CT	-	21 out of 32, 94 more metastases than US	-	-
Bernatik et al[58], 2001	28	CT	0.59	0.97	-	-
Albrecht et al[74], 2001	62	CT, MRI, IOUS, FNA	0.92	0.97	-	-

IOUS: Intra operative ultrasound; SPIO-MRI: Superparamagnetic iron oxide-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging; Gd-EOB-MRI: Gadoxetic acid-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging; CT: Computed tomography; FNA: Fine needle aspiration; US: Ultrasound; CEUS: Contrast enhanced ultrasound.