The current status of imaging diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma

Early detection of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is important, since the most effective treatment for HCC is surgical resection or local ablation therapy when the tumor is small. Fortunately, recent advances in liver imaging techniques have facilitated the detection of small HCCs. Recent progression of noninvasive imaging technology includes various techniques of harmonic ultrasound (US) imaging with several kinds of US contrast agents, multislice helical computed tomography (CT), and rapid high-quality magnetic resonance (MR) technique with new, tissue-specific contrast agents. These techniques seem to have a strong potential to improve detection and characterization of HCC. In this review, the technique and efficacy of new imaging methods including contrast enhanced US, multislice CT, and recent MR techniques with new contrast agents for detecting and diagnosing HCC will be described.