Wednesday, November 29 | 3:40 p.m.-3:50 p.m. | SSM14-05 | Room E353C
Contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) appears to be an effective tool for assessing muscle injuries in the acute phase after injury -- and it offers a lower-cost, more-accessible alternative to MRI, according to this study.A team led by Dr. Rafael Heiss of the University Hospital Erlangen in Germany sought to evaluate the performance of contrast ultrasound for imaging muscle injuries across a range of severities, compared with conventional ultrasound and MRI. The study included 15 patients who were examined after lower-extremity muscular injuries; the patients underwent conventional ultrasound, CEUS, and MRI within 24 to 48 hours after the injury was sustained.
Both contrast ultrasound and MRI identified all 15 injuries; ultrasound alone identified 10. In addition, CEUS delivered more detail about the injuries compared with ultrasound alone -- especially for low-grade lesions in the muscle tissue, which can appear normal on conventional ultrasound, according to Heiss and colleagues.
"Our results indicate that ... CEUS seems to be a sensitive additional diagnostic modality in the assessment of muscle injuries in the acute phase after injury," they concluded. "Our [study demonstrates the] advantages of CEUS in imaging of low-grade lesions compared to conventional ultrasound."
