[Color-coded Doppler sonography of primary and secondary liver tumors]

50 Patients with 78 focal liver lesions were examined via colour-coded Doppler system to study the vascularity of metastatic lesions and primary benign and malignant liver tumours. According to the amount of detectable colour Doppler signals, tumour vascularity was graded into 4 types. Metastases (n = 40) and cavernous haemangiomas (n = 12) seemed to be avascular with no evidence of increased vascularity (Type I/II). Conversely primary liver cancer (PLCA) (n = 7) and focal nodular hyperplasia (FNH) (n = 16) mainly produced arterial Doppler signals within the tumour (Type III/IV). AV shunts and partial portal vein thrombosis could be demonstrated in PLCA. Doppler colour flow imaging for detection of tumour vascularity may thus add to the specificity of ultrasonic tumour diagnosis.