A novel Doppler spectral index for differentiating benign from malignant lung tumors.

It has been reported that the resistance index (RI) and pulsatility index (PI) are of limited value in differentiating lung cancers from benign lesions. We hypothesized that a vascular work index (VWI), derived from Doppler spectral waveforms, would yield better results. Forty-one patients were enrolled, 20 of them having malignancies and 21 having benign lesions. The VWI was defined as the square of peak systolic velocity times the time-velocity integral. Maximal VWI, minimal RI, and minimal PI of each tumor were used for analysis. Significantly higher VWI values were found in malignant tumors compared with benign lesions (p < 0.0001). VWI was shown by analysis of the receiver operating characteristic curve to be a best predictor of lung malignancies than PI and RI (p < 0.05), with a 0.89 (95% confidence interval, 0.80-0.98) area under the receiver operating characteristic curve. VWI may be a useful index to help differentiate malignant from benign lung tumors. Copyright © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Citation

Tsung-Ju Wu, Judith Shu-Chu Shiao, Jau-Yeong Lu. A novel Doppler spectral index for differentiating benign from malignant lung tumors. Journal of clinical ultrasound : JCU. 2011 Jun;39(5):256-62

Mesh Tags

PMID: 21448999

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