Fusion Imaging of Contrast-enhanced Ultrasound With CT or MRI for Kidney Lesions.

AIM: To evaluate the feasibility of ultrasound (US) computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) fusion imaging (FI) for localization and assessment of kidney lesions.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-eight patients with kidney lesions previously detected on CT or MRI were included in this retrospective study. All 28 patients with kidney lesions, which were indefinable (42.9%) or hard to localize (57.1%) on gray-scale US alone, underwent FI of US with CT/MRI datasets. In 23 (82%) patients with indeterminate kidney lesions, FI including contrast-enhanced US was conducted.

RESULTS: FI was successfully performed in 25 out of 28 (89.3%) patients. FI with contrast-enhanced US was able to clarify the previously detected kidney lesions in 21 out of 23 patients (91.3%).

CONCLUSION: FI is a feasible technique for localizing kidney lesions that are hard to define by grayscale US alone and the additional application of contrast-enhanced US is useful in clarifying indeterminate CT or MRI findings.