Hepatitis Virus Infection Predicts Heterogeneous Enhancement Patterns in Intrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma on...

Area of Science:

• Hepatobiliary Surgery
• Diagnostic Imaging
• Oncology

Background:

• Chronic hepatitis is a major risk factor for intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC).
• Accurate differentiation of hepatitis-associated ICC is crucial for effective clinical management.
• Contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) is a valuable tool in diagnosing liver lesions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To distinguish hepatitis-associated ICC from non-hepatitis ICC using integrated clinical and CEUS features.
• To identify independent predictors for hepatitis-associated ICC.
• To evaluate the diagnostic performance of a predictive model.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective analysis of ICC patients who underwent CEUS.
• Stratification into hepatitis (n=36) and non-hepatitis cirrhosis (n=82) groups.
• Logistic regression and ROC curve analysis to identify predictors and assess diagnostic performance.

Main Results:

• Hepatitis-associated ICC showed significant differences in age, male predominance, elevated AFP and CA19-9, absence of bile duct dilation, and homogeneous arterial enhancement on CEUS.
• Male gender, advanced age, elevated AFP, CA19-9 (27-100 U/mL), and homogeneous enhancement were independent predictors.
• The predictive model achieved an AUC of 0.8713 with 82.9% sensitivity and 77.8% specificity.

Conclusions:

• Conventional ultrasound and CEUS features aid in the non-invasive identification of hepatitis-associated ICC.
• These imaging modalities enhance preoperative risk stratification.
• Improved diagnostic accuracy supports better therapeutic decision-making for ICC patients.