Superb microvascular imaging technique in depicting vascularity in focal liver lesions: more hypervascular supply patterns were depicted in hepatocellular carcinoma

PURPOSE: To investigate the capacity of Superb Microvascular Imaging (SMI) to detect microvascular details and to explore the different SMI features in various focal liver lesions (FLLs) and the correlation between SMI and microvessel density (MVD). Method: Eighty-three liver lesions were enrolled in our study, including 35 hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs) and 48 non-HCCs. All patients underwent color Doppler flow imaging (CDFI) and SMI examination and were categorized into subgroups according to Adler semiquantitative grading (grade 0–3) or the microvascular morphologic patterns (pattern a-f). The correlation between SMI blood flow signal percentage and MVD was assessed. RESULTS: Compared with CDFI, SMI detected more high-level blood flow signals (grade 2–3) and more hypervascular supply patterns (pattern e-f) in HCCs (p < 0.05). Furthermore, more hypervascular supply patterns and fewer hypovascular supply patterns were detected in HCC compared with non-HCC (p < 0.05). Based on Adler’s grading or microvascular morphologic patterns, the areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve were 0.696 and 0.760 for SMI, 0.583 and 0.563 for CDFI. The modality of “SMI-microvascular morphologic pattern” showed the best diagnostic performance. There was significant correlation between MVD and the SMI blood flow signal percentage (vascular index, VI) in malignant lesions (r = 0.675, p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: SMI was superior to CDFI in detecting microvascular blood flow signals. More hypervascular supply patterns were depicted in HCC than in non-HCC, suggesting a promising diagnostic value for SMI in the differentiation between HCC and non-HCC. Meanwhile, we were the first to demonstrate that SMI blood flow signal percentage (VI) was correlated with MVD in malignant lesions.