FOCAL MALIGNANT LIVER-LESIONS - DIAGNOSIS BY DYNAMIC INCREMENTAL CT, EARLY PHASE

The purpose of our study was to evaluate the accuracy of dynamic incre mental bolus-enhanced conventional CT (DICT) with intravenous contrast administration, early phase, in the diagnosis of malignancy of focal liver lesions. A total of 122 lesions were selected in 74 patients con sidering the following criteria: lesion diameter 10 mm or more, number of lesions less than six per study, except in multiple angiomatosis a nd the existence of a valid criteria of definitive diagnosis. Lesions were categorized into seven levels of diagnostic confidence of maligna ncy compared with the definitive diagnosis for acquisition of a receiv er-operator-characteristic (ROC) curve analysis and to determine the s ensitivity and specificity of the technique. Forty-six and 70 lesions were correctly diagnosed as malignant and benign, respectively; there were 2 false-positive and 4 false-negative diagnoses of malignancy and the sensitivity and specificity obtained were 92 and 97%. The DICT ea rly phase was confirmed as a highly accurate method in the characteriz ation and diagnosis of malignancy of focal liver lesions, requiring on optimal technique performance and judicious analysis of existing semi ological data.