TO RESEARCH MORPHOLOGIC FEATURES, SIGNAL CHARACTERISTICS ON SONOGRAPHY AND DYNAMIC COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY OF HEPATIC HEMANGIOMAS

Objectives: To assess morphologic features, signal characteristics on sonography and dynamic computed tomography of hepatic hemangiomas. To compare the agreement degree of diagnosis of hepatic hemangiomas between sonography and computed tomography. Material and methods: We researched the sonography and computed tomography findings in 50 patients including 82 lesions hepatic hemangiomas at Hue university hospital and Hue central hospital from march 2012 to june 2013, 21 men and 29 women, mean age 51.7 ± 13.9 (range 30 – 89). Results: Mean mass diameter was 3.7 ± 1.9 cm. Sonography revealed hyperechonic pattern in 97.6% and hypoechonic pattern in 2.4%. On nonenhanced computed tomography, almost tumors (70.8%) showed hypodense, 26.8% had cleftlike areas of lower density than the main mass and 2.4% showed hyperdense lesions in a hypodense fatty liver. Almost tumors were periperally hyperdense on early contrast - enhanced computed tomography, progressive centripetal enhancement and in the delayed phase 85.4% displayed isodense and 14.6% displayed hyperdense fill-in. Conclusions: Triphasic helical computed tomography has additional values for sonography in diagnosis of hepatic hemangioma with typical characteristics: hypodense lesion on nonenhanced computed tomography, periperally hyperdense on early contrast - enhanced computed tomography, progressive centripetal enhancement and complete isodense fill-in of the lesion in the delayed phase. For tiny lesion smaller than 15mm (especially smaller than 10 mm), computed tomography plays a less important role. Key words: Hepatic hemangiomas, signal characteristics, sonography, computed tomography, research.