Differential Diagnosis of Pathological Type of Peripheral Lung Cancer with Multimodal Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound

The goal of the work described here was to investigate the role of multimodal contrast-enhanced ultrasound in the differential diagnosis of peripheral lung cancer.

From April 2017 to July 2021, 109 patients with confirmed pulmonary malignant lesions who underwent CEUS examination were involved in our study. Seven patients were excluded because of the short duration of CEUS video or unsatisfactory imaging. Finally,102 patients with peripheral lung cancer were enrolled in this study. The maximum diameter of the lesions ranged from 1.6 to 13.0 cm (mean 6.2 ± 2.3 cm). On the basis of the pathological results, the patients were divided into the small cell lung cancer (SCLC) group and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) group (including adenocarcinoma, lung squamous cell carcinoma and large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma). A Logiq E9 ultrasonic machine equipped with a 3.5 to 5.0 MHz C5-1 probe was used. Patient clinical information, CEUS features, CPI patterns and TIC parameters were analyzed and compared between different groups. Statistical analyses were performed with SPSS software and MedCalc software. The receiver operating characteristic curve was plotted.

In the differential diagnosis of SCLC and NSCLC, color parametric imaging indicated great performance. NSCLC exhibited a centripetal enhancement pattern more frequently (72.7%), while SCLC exhibited an eccentric enhancement pattern more frequently (92.9%) (p < 0.001). In the differential diagnosis of adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma, logistic regression analysis revealed that patient age of onset ≤60 y, difference in arrival time between lung and tumor ≤3.8 s, drop time of the time-intensity curve >23.2 s and absence of internal necrosis on CEUS were independent predictors for adenocarcinoma (area under the curve = 0.861).

In our study, multimodal contrast-enhanced ultrasound provided useful information in the differential diagnosis between small cell lung cancer and non-small cell lung cancer, especially between adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma.