Ultrasound elastography of pulmonary lesions - a feasibility study.

INTRODUCTION

The potential of sonography in the examination of lung tissue is extremely limited by the air-filled alveoles of the lung. Only in special circumstances like pleural adhesion lesions, atelectasis or pneumonia can lung tissue be visualized by B-mode sonography. Real-time elastography was primarily applied to detect and visualize pulmonary lesions.

METHODS AND PATIENTS: 8 patients with a total of 18 histologically proven metastases of the lung were included. All pulmonary lesions were detected by computed tomography. Sonographic examination was performed with a 7.5 MHz linear transducer (Acuson Antares premium edition, Siemens, Erlangen, Germany), including B-mode and real-time elastography (RTE). The mean distance between pleura and the lesions ranged from 0 to 2.5 cm. Two lesions were located in the upper right lobe, eleven lesions in the lower right and five in the lower left lobe.

RESULTS

RTE was able to detect and visualize all 18 pulmonary lesions in contrast to B-mode. The size and distance of the lesions from the pleura correlated with the CT findings.

CONCLUSION

In contrast to B-mode sonography, RTE is able to detect and visualize peripheral, non-pleural adherent pulmonary lesions.