Clinical Significances of Color Doppler Ultrasound in Assessing Renal Cell Carcinoma

Lee, Sang Don; Chung, Moon Kee

Abstract

Color Doppler ultrasound imaging( DCI), non-invasive technique, provides the informations of vascular distributions and hemodynamic status, which is helpful to make the differential diagnosis between renal cell carcinoma and benign lesions. We evaluated tumor vascularity, peak systolic velocity, end diastolic velocity, and resistive index(RI) using DCI in 11 cases of renal cell carcinoma and 2 cases of benign lesions. Hypervascularity within the tumor was seen in all patients with renal cell carcinoma. Peak systolic velocity was higher than 3kHz(average 5. 5kHz) in 9 cases. End diastolic velocity was higher than 1kHz(average 2.2kHz) in 9 cases. RI was lower than 0.7(average 0.59) in 9 cases. Arteriovenous shunt was seen in 7 cases. In 4 cases with intermediate mass on CT and USG,' DCI was helpful to make the diagnosis preoperatively. In 2 cases of renal cell carcinoma, DCI was beneficial to evaluate the presence and the extent of tumor thrombi. Whether the hemodynamic parameters could be a prognostic factor needs more cases to be defined.