Abstract
AIM: Comparison of different ultrasound elastography techniques for detection of changes after sclerotherapy within venous malformations. MATERIALANDMETHODS: In patients with venous malformations sonographywas executed at exactly the same position prior to and after ethanol-gel sclerotherapy. Both examinations included B-Mode, vascular sonography with Color-Coded Duplex Sonography, and additional ...
Abstract
AIM: Comparison of different ultrasound elastography techniques for detection of changes after sclerotherapy within venous malformations. MATERIALANDMETHODS: In patients with venous malformations sonographywas executed at exactly the same position prior to and after ethanol-gel sclerotherapy. Both examinations included B-Mode, vascular sonography with Color-Coded Duplex Sonography, and additional sonography with different elastography techniques (strain, qualitative and quantitative Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse (ARFI) elastography) with a linear transducer (6-9 MHz). Qualitative elastograms were read in consensus and scored. Differences of elasticity scores were statistically analyzed, p-values < 0.05 were regarded significant. RESULTS: Elasticity scores of strain and qualitative ARFI elastography in 25 patients (21 females, averagely 24.4 years old) were comparable before treatment (p = 0.69). After therapy qualitative ARFI scores changed significantly compared to pre-treatment scores (p = 0.0017), whereas strain elastography scores revealed no significant changes (p = 0.13). Quantitative ARFI values obtained after sclerotherapy within the venous malformations were significantly higher compared to pretreatment values (p = 0.049), and significantly higher to values obtained in surrounding tissue (p = 0.030). Comparison of preand post-treatment ARFI values of the surrounding tissue was not significant (p = 0.67). CONCLUSION: Elasticity scores of qualitative ARFI elastography reliably detect ethanol-gel induced changes in venous malformations. Quantitative ARFI may be a tool for therapy planning, and for monitoring sclerotherapy outcome as well as the effect of sclerosing agents on malformation and surrounding tissue in patients with venous malformations.
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