Advances of imaging for hepatocellular carcinoma

A variety of imaging modalities, including ultrasound (US), computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), nuclear medicine, and angiography, are currently used in evaluating patients with chronic liver disease and suspected hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Further technological advancement will undoubtedly have a major impact on liver tumor imaging. Increased speed of data acquisition and consequently shorter scan times in CT and MRI show further improvement in resolution by further reducing motion artifacts. Development of new contrast materials for liver tumor imaging in US and MRI improve tumor detection and characterization by increasing the contrast resolution. Currently available advanced US techniques in the evaluation of HCC are various harmonic imaging techniques with contrast agents, volume imaging, and recently, US elastography, that has been developing and might play a role in characterizing liver nodules in the future. The latest advance in CT is the multidetector (MD) CT scanner where a 256- or 320-detector CT was introduced. Recent studies describe the high sensitivity of double arterial phase imaging in hepatic tumor detection and the usefulness of CT angiography by using MD CT in a detailed assessment of hepatic arterial anatomy using a three-dimensional dataset. In addition, perfusion CT imaging is also being developed and can be used for the characterization and treatment monitoring of HCC. Dual-energy CT with new technology is also continuously progressing. Advances in MR technology, including hardware and pulse sequence implementation, allow acquisition times to be reduced to the time frame of one breathhold, providing multiphasic dynamic MRI. Functional MRI including diffusion-weighted MRI, MR elastography, and new MR contrast agent with dual function have been investigated for the clinical utility of detection and characterization of HCCs. Functional MRI has a potential to be a promising technique for assessing HCC.