Use of Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound in Carotid Atherosclerotic Disease: Limits and Perspectives

Table 1

Summary of studies on carotid contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) for the detection of intraplaque neovascularization. The results of each study are expressed with the statistical significance ( value) of the correlation between the parameters.

Author	Year	Number of  patients	Symptomatic	Asymptomatic	Histology	Contrast agent	Ultrasound apparatus	Vascular probe	Mechanical index	CEUS analysis		Results
										Semiautomated analysis	Visual assessment	CEUS and histology	CEUS and carotid symptoms	CEUS and echogenicity	CEUS and other vulnerable characteristics	CEUS and gender	Software and visual assessment
Li et al. [9]	2014	17	13	4	1	SonoVue	Philips iU-22 ultrasound system	L 9-3	0,07	1	1	0,002	0	0	0	0	0
Hjelmgren et al. [10]	2014	13	7	6	0	SonoVue	Siemens S2000 system	L 9-4	0,06	1	1	0	0,05	0,01	0	0	0,001
Kim et al. [11]	2014	89	0	89	1	SonoVue	Acuson Sequoia 512 Siemens system	L 15-8	0,19	0	1	0,021	0	0	0	0	0
van den Oord et al. [12]	2014	143	0	143	0	SonoVue	Philips iU-22 ultrasound system	L 9-3	0,06–0,08	1	1	0	0	0	0	0,03	0
Müller et al. [13]	2014	33	17	16	1	SonoVue	Antares Siemens system	nn	nn	1	1	0,01	Not significant	0	0	0	0,02
Vavuranakis et al. [14]	2013	14	0	14	1	SonoVue	Acuson Sequoia 512 Siemens system	L 15-8	nn	1	0	0,002	0	0	0	0	0
Ritter et al. [15]	2013	41	41	0	0	SonoVue	GE Logiq 7 system	L 9-3	nn	0	1	0	0	0	0,02	0	0
Hjelmgren et al. [16]	2013	52	10	42	0	SonoVue	Siemens S2000 system	L 9-4	0,06	1	0	0	Not significant	0,02	0	0	0
van den Oord et al. [17]	2013	69	0	69	0	SonoVue	Philips iU-22 ultrasound system	L 9-3	0,06–0,08	1	1	0	0	0	0,05	0	0
Zhou et al. [18]	2013	46	24	22	0	SonoVue	Acuson Sequoia 512 Siemens system	L 2	0,07	0	1	0	Not significant	0	0,05	0	0
Varetto et al. [19]	2012	51	12	39	1	SonoVue	Esaote MyLab 25 Gold system	L 9-2	nn	1	0	0,001	0,01	0,02	0	0	0
Faggioli et al. [20]	2011	22	7	15	1	SonoVue	Philips iU-22 ultrasound system	L 9-3	0.13	1	0	0,003	0,006	0	0	0	0
Hoogi et al. [21]	2011	27	8	19	1	Definity	Philips iU-22 ultrasound system	L 8-4		1	0	0,01	0	0	0	0	0
Shalhoub et al. [22]	2011	31	16	15	1	SonoVue	Philips iU-22 ultrasound system	L 12-5	0,34	1	0	0,004	0	0	0	0	0
Owen et al. [23]	2010	37	16	21	0	SonoVue	Philips iU-22 ultrasound system	L 12-5	0,34	1	0	0	0,005	0	0	0	0
Huang et al. [24]	2010	183	86	97	0	SonoVue	Acuson Sequoia 512 Siemens system	L 15-8	0,35	1	1	0	0,001	0	0	0	0,001
Staub et al.; [25]	2010	147	17	130	0	Definity	ATL HDI 5000 Philips system	L 7-4	0,06–0,1	0	1	0	0	0	0,034	0	0
Giannoni et al. [26]	2009	77	64	9	1	SonoVue	Acuson Sequoia 512 Siemens system	L 9-3	0,4–1,4	1	1	>0,05	0,001	0,001	0	0	0
Magnoni et al. [27]	2009	25	0	25	0	Optison	GE Vivid 7 system	L 7	0,08–01	0	1	0	0	0	0,001	0	0
Xiong et al. [28]	2009	104	35	69	0	SonoVue	GE Logiq 9 system	L 9-3	0,13	1	0	0	0,001	0	0	0	0
Huang et al. [29]	2008	63	0	63	0	SonoVue	Acuson Sequoia 512 Siemens system	L 15-8	0,35	1	0	0	0	0,01	0	0	0
Coli et al. [30]	2008	32	28	4	1	Optison	GE Vivid 7 system	L 7	0,08–0,1	0	1	0,005		0,001	0	0	0
Vicenzini et al. [31]	2007	23	0	23	1	SonoVue	Acuson Sequoia 512 Siemens system	L 6-15	0,4–1,4	0	1	>0,05	0	>0,05	>0,05	0	0
Shah et al. [32]	2007	17	5	12	1	Optison	ATL HDI 5000 Philips system	L 7-4	0,06–0,1	0	1	0,002	0	0	0	0	0
Total		1356	406	946	12					16	15