APPLICATION OF CONTRAST AGENTS IN COLOR I MAGE ULTRASONOGRAPHY

Background: Vascularization is a characteristic of malignant tumor gro wth. It is possible to distinguish between benign and malignant tumors and lymph nodes of the head and the neck by their pattern of blood ve ssels which can be detected by color image ultrasonography. Unfortunat ely this detection is often unsuccessful because the vessels are too s mall. Method: Four cases (lymph node metastasis, chronic lymph node in flammation, Morbus Hodgkin, cancer of the floor of the mouth) are demo nstraded. The vascularization of the masses was detected before and af ter the injection of Levovist(R), a contrast agent which is known to a mplify the duplex signal up to 25 dB. Results: In all of the demonstra ted cases, a similar pattern of intranodal vessels was detected before the application of Levovist(R). After the injection an enhancement of the duplex signal could always be detected within the first minute an d differences of the intratumoral pattern of the blood vessels between the cases could be identified. Discussion: Levovist(R) results in an increased detection of intratumoral blood vessels detected by color im age ultrasonography. Further studies are necessary to check whether it s application results in an increase of the specifity of the examinati on.