Is Contrast enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) ready for use in daily practice for evaluation of focal liver lesions?

Abstract

Abdominal ultrasound is one of the most popular imaging methods due to its feasibility, low cost and accessibility. Contrast Enhanced Ultrasound (CEUS) with second generation contrast agents became in the last years a useful tool for the characterization of focal liver lesions (FLL) so that EFSUMB issued guidelines for its use in clinical practice. Several large studies proved that CEUS has similar performance to more expensive imaging methods such as contrast enhanced CT and contrast enhanced MRI for the characterization of FLL. Also, several studies proved that CEUS is cost-effective as a first-line imaging method. Considering all these data, we think that CEUS is ready to be used in daily practice for the evaluation of FLL.