Relation of internal echo patterns and hemodynamics by incremental dynamic CT in hepatic cavernous hemangioma

To evaluate the correlation between the internal echo patterns and henodynamics in hepatic cavernous hemangioma, we compared the internal echo pattern with the hemodynamic pattern examined by intravenous bolus CT (mufti-phase incremental bolus dynamic CT) in 34 diagnosed hemangiomas (25 patients). We classified cavernous hemangiomas as two different hemodynamic patterns according to the findings of the early phase of intravenous bolus CT scans. Early enhancing type means that most portion of a mass is enhanced during the early phase and late enhancing type means that only minimal peripheral portion of a mass is enhanced during the early phase. We classified ultrasonographic patterns as hypoechoic and hyperechoic according to main echogenicity of the mass. The late enhancing type tends toward the high echo type (20/21) and the enhancing type tends toward the low echo type(11/13) (p<0.01). Therefore, we believe that the early enhancing type which represents rapid contrast inflow toward mass, contains large portions of cavernous space and shows hypoechoic, but late enhancing type which represents late contrast inflow toward a mass, contains large portions of fibrous space and shows hyper echoic. In conclusion, there was significant correlation between internal hemodynamics and echo patterns in hepatic cavernous hemangioma