The use of quantitative contrast-enhanced endoscopic ultrasound in the evaluation of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors – Can we move from quality to quantity? A proof-of-concept study

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Introduction: Contrast-enhanced EUS (CE-EUS) is a helpful tool for the diagnosis of pancreatic focal lesions, as pancreatic cancer (PC) and pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor (pNEN). The enhancement of the lesion after contrast medium injection is usually assessed qualitatively and arbitrarily by the endosonographer. Dedicated software has recently been developed to obtain an unbiased quantitative assessment using perfusion parameters.

Aim(s): Evaluate quantitatively the enhancement of pNENs at CE-EUS compared with PCs

Materials and methods: Seventy-three patients (51 PC and 22 pNEN cytologically diagnosed), who underwent CE-EUS in our hospital were consecutively included. Quantitative analysis of tumor vascularization was performed with a commercially available software (Vuebox®, Bracco). Time-intensity-curve (TIC) were created and several parameters were evaluated including the average contrast signal intensity (MeanLin), peak enhancement (PE), rising time (RT), fall time (FT), time to peak (TTP), mean transit time (mTT), Wash-in Area Under the Curve (WiAUC), Wash-in Rate (WiR), Wash-in Perfusion Index (WiPI), Wash-out Area Under the Curve (WoAUC), Wash-out Rate (WoR), and WiAUC + WoAUC (WiWoAUC). Univariate and multivariate analyses with patient- and tumor-level variables were conducted

Conference:

Presenting Author: Tacelli M

Authors: Tacelli M, Bina N, Capurso G, Zaccari P, Petrone M,

Keywords: CE-EUS, pNEN, artificial intelligence, pancreatic cancer, prediction,