Time intensity curve analysis of subharmonic transabdominal and harmonic endoscopic contrast-enhanced ultrasound of pancreatic masses

Pancreatic cancer is associated with poor clinical outcomes primarily, due to the advanced stage of disease at diagnosis. Harmonic contrast-enhanced endoscopic ultrasound has been proposed as an imaging approach for characterizing pancreatic masses. As an alternative, transabdominal subharmonic imaging has been proposed to limit invasiveness and better suppress nonlinear tissue echoes. In both of these approaches, time-intensity curve (TIC) analysis can be performed to quantify blood flow dynamics. The purpose of this study was to compare time TICs from both harmonic endoscopic ultrasound and subharmonic transabdominal ultrasound in pancreatic masses.