Utility of ultrasonic angiography for detecting the local recurrence in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma

To improve the detectability of recurrence of treated hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients, we tried to perform ultrasonic angiography (US-angiography: US-angio), which indicated the presence of HCC of a small size by detecting arterial blood flow, at six months after treatment. CT and angiography were also performed. The subjects were 35 HCC patients (67.7±6.1 years old) who had been treated with non-surgical therapies. There were two types of recurrence, i. e., local recurrence and recurrence in other portions. Local recurrence was observed in 18 of the 35 patients. The local recurrence could be found in 66.7% (12/18) by CT, 77.8% (14/18) by angiography and 100.0% (18/18) by US-angio. On the other hand, the recurrence in other portions was observed in 12 of the 35 patients. The finding of the recurrence in other portions were detected in 50.0% (6/12) by CT, 100.0% (12/12) by angiography and 50.0% (6/12) by US-angio. In conclusion, US-angio is useful to detect the local recurrence after treatment of HCC.