Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (pNET) are very rare in clinic. In our retrospective study
the contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) features of pNET and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) were compared to evaluate the preoperative diagnosis value of CEUS.
Methods:
In our retrospective study
18 cases of pNET patients (18 lesions) and 55 cases of PDA
C patients (55 lesions) were included. Ultrasound and CEUS imaging features were investigated and compared. All the lesions were final proved by operation and histopathological results.
Results:
On conventional grayscale ultrasound
the average diameter of pNET lesions was (36.618.1) mm
and (37.115.2) mm for PDAC lesions. After injection of contrast agents
all pNET lesions showed hyper-enhancement (
n
=11
61.1%) or iso-enhancement (
n
=7
38.9%) during arterial phase
33.3% (6/18) lesions showed hyper-enhancement and 50.0% (9/18) lesions showing iso-enhancement during venous phase. About 27.8% (5/18) lesions showed hyperenhancement and 50.0%(9/18) lesions showed iso-enhancement during late phase. However
most (76.4%) PDAC lesions showed hypo enhancement during all CEUS phases (
P
0.05). The diagnostic accuracy of CEUS in pNET was 94.4% (17/18)
with 77.8% sensitivity
100.0% specificity
94.5% accuracy
100% positive predictive value and 93.1% negative predictive value respectively.
Conclusion:
CEUS is helpful in preoperative diagnosis and differential diagnosis of pNET.