From: Multimodal molecular imaging evaluation for early diagnosis and prognosis of cholangiocarcinoma
Technique | Advantages | Limitations | Leading role |
---|---|---|---|
US | Inexpensive and simple to conduct | 1. Difficulty in differential diagnosis 2. Difficult to assess the range of tumor invasive | First choice for screening |
Enhanced CT | 1. The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy in the evaluation of primary tumor, vascular and distant metastasis are very high 2. High spatial resolution | 1. Radiation 2. Difficult to evaluate longitudinal invasion along the bile duct | Standard imaging mode for CCA diagnosis and staging |
MRI/MRCP | 1. Comprehensive evaluation of tumor, vascular and bile duct 2. No radiation 3. Multi-plane and multi-parameter imaging 4. Extremely high soft tissue resolution 5. Biliary tree visualization (MRCP) | 1. Expensive cost 2. Long inspection time 3. Easy to be disturbed by artifacts | 1. Differential diagnosis of difficult cases of CCA (except enhanced CT) 2. Evaluation of longitudinal invasion of ECCA along bile duct |
ERCP | 1. Evaluate bile duct strictures and intraluminal lesions 2. Both Diagnosis and treatment are feasible | 1. Invasive complications 2. Difficult to evaluate the bile duct above the site of obstruction | Pathological diagnosis and biliary drainage |
PET | 1. Whole-body imaging 2. Extremely sensitive | May lead false positives and false negatives | Determination of distant Metastasis and tumor staging |