September 10, 2018 – 

By: Michael Walter

Contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) is a more accurate imaging modality for predicting malignancy in suspicious kidney tumors than CT or MRI, according to new research presented at the Advances in Contrast Ultrasound International Bubble Conference in Chicago.

Richard Barr, MD, PhD, a professor of radiology at Northeast Ohio Medical University in Rootstown, Ohio, presented the research. Barr and colleagues followed 721 patients with approximately 1,000 kidney masses for up to 10 years. After CEUS, 367 of the patients avoided biopsy, surgery or a close follow-up. CEUS also revealed that five patients who thought their lesions were benign actually had malignant tumors.

“Contrast enhanced ultrasound is a very robust technique with an extremely high predictive value,” Barr said in a prepared statement from the International Contrast Ultrasound Society.

During his presentation, Barr noted that another benefit of CEUS is that it does not involve ionizing radiation. In addition, he added, CEUS offers specialists imaging results in real time.

Back in June, Barr was named the next editor-in-chief of the Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine by the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine.