1. Acoustic Structure Quantification (ASQ): A New Tool in the Sonographic Diagnosis of Liver Lesions in Hepatic Alveolar Echinococcosis
Tanja Kaltenbach,
Dr. Tilmann Gräter,
University Hospital UIm
Germany
Innovation for the Management of Echinococcosis
March 27, 2014
Besançon, France

2. Methods Patients 24 patients (13 women, 11 men)
mean age 52 years ( years)
mean disease duration 68 months (1– 334 months)
diagnostically confirmed HAE liver lesion(s)
fasting at least 6 hours
Examinations
Comparative ASQ examination of HAE liver lesions and of healthy liver tissue was performed with Toshiba Aplio 500
Maximum size of lesions was measured in B-mode and in ASQ mode
ASQ videos were stored as raw data and used for quantitative analysis with ASQ software
ASQ parameters Mode, Average, Standard Deviation and FD-Ratio of lesions and of healthy tissue were compared

3. Methods Quantitative ASQ examination Example of placing four oval ROIs
of similar size in a HAE lesion.
Example of placing four ROIs in healthy
liver parenchyma on level with the lesion.

4. Results
Subjectively, parasitic tumors in HAE appear more prominent in color- coded ASQ imaging
lesions’ size measured in ASQ mode does not differ from size measured in B-mode
Median FD-ratio of lesions was 3 (0.1 to 3), compared with 0.5 (0.1 to 1.8) in healthy liver (p < )
Comparison of other ASQ parameters shows highly significant results

5. Conclusion
Qualitative and quantitative ASQ is a practical and useful method to detect structural changes of liver parenchyma in HAE
FD-ratio can be considered a representative and practical ASQ parameter indicating tissue alterations in infested parenchyma
If lesion-specific ASQ reference values ​​can be defined in future long- term-studies, ASQ technology could provide additional information for follow up examinations of HAE liver lesions