Einleitung und Fragestellung In patients with soft tissue tumors (STT), treatment planning depends on tumor entity.
Core needle biopsy (CNB) is the diagnostic standard. Contrast-enhanced ultrasonography
(CEUS) has provided promising results but is still not widely used in the evaluation
of STT, especially when located in the abdomen or retroperitoneum. The purpose of
this study was to evaluate the role of CEUS in diagnosing STT.
Material und Methodik This is a retrospective study of 25 patients (12 males and 13 females) subjected
to CEUS-guided CNB treated from Dec 2021 to Dec 2022 at the Sarcoma Center of the
University Medical Center Goettingen. US and CEUS were performed with the Logiq S8
XDClear (GE, USA) and using sulfur hexafluoride microbubbles (SonoVue, Bracco, Italy)
as contrast medium. The masses biopsied were located in the abdomen (n=1), abdomen+retroperitoneum
(n=1), retroperitoneum (n=3), retroperitoneum+upper leg (n=1), upper leg (n=10), groin
(n=1), neck (n=1), upper arm (n=1), back (n=2), shoulder (n=1), thorax (n=2) and lower
leg (n=1).
Ergebnisse The patients` age ranged from 23 to 87 years. Accuracy of US-guided CNB after CEUS
was determined by comparing the histology of the biopsy with the definitive diagnosis
in 14 surgically resected samples. In these samples the histopathological diagnosis
as well the grading classification correlated in 100% concordance with a sensitivity
and specificity of 100%. The median tumor volume calculated by US was 204,6 cm³. Correlating
the dignity with the tumor size, a cut off value higher than 206,40 cm³ turned out
to be associated with malignancy (p=0,000387). No peri- or postinterventional complications
occurred.
Zusammenfassung CEUS-guided CNB is safe and has proven to be a promising method in guiding bioptic
sampling of STT, directing the needle to the most significant areas of the tumor.
Sensitivity and specificity are extremely high in determining the histopathological
diagnosis. This study evaluates to our best knowledge for the first time the role
of CEUS in STT located in the abdomen and retroperitoneum.
