COMPARATIVE EVALUATION OF ULTRASONOGRAPHY AND COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY IN FOCAL LIVER LESIONS

Introduction: Liver diseases are among the commonestcauses of morbidity and mortality and accurate characterization is an important goal of diagnostic imaging.The aim of the study is to establish the role of ultrasonography and CT in differentiation and early diagnosis of focal liver lesions and to correlate the findings with pathological diagnosis.

Methodology:This prospective comparative observational and hospital based study was conducted on 100 patients. USG and CT were performed on focal hepatic mass patients. Diagnostic value of USG were compared with to those of CT.

Results: Ultrasonography and CT evaluation results were compared with final diagnosis by FNAC/ HPR.USG showed maximum cases among malignant lesions were HCC (20%) and among benign lesions were liver abscess (19%).CT diagnosed maximum number of cases as metastasis (19%) in malignant lesions andalmost equal percentage of hemangiomas(15%) and liver abscess(16%) among the benign lesions. The sensitivity and specificity of USG in diagnosing lesions turned out to be slightly less than that of CT.

Conclusion:The study concluded that ultrasonography can be adopted as the initial imaging modality with advantages of differentiating cystic from solid lesions, relationship with critical structures and can guide FNAC and biopsy. CT has a comparatively higher sensitivity and specificity in detection of lesions and can help narrow the differentials.