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World J Gastroenterol. Apr 21, 2014; 20(15): 4160-4166
Published online Apr 21, 2014. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v20.i15.4160
Therapeutic response assessment of RFA for HCC: Contrast-enhanced US, CT and MRI
Yasunori Minami, Naoshi Nishida, Masatoshi Kudo
Yasunori Minami, Naoshi Nishida, Masatoshi Kudo, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Kinki University Faculty of Medicine, Osaka 589-8511, Japan
Author contributions: Minami Y drafted the manuscript and wrote the final version of the manuscript; Nishida N reviewed the manuscript; Kudo M approved the final version of the manuscript.
Correspondence to: Masatoshi Kudo, MD, PhD, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Kinki University Faculty of Medicine, 377-2 Ohno-Higashi Osaka-Sayama, Osaka 589-8511, Japan. m-kudo@med.kindai.ac.jp
Telephone: +81-72-3660221-3525 Fax: +81-72-3672880
Received: October 12, 2013
Revised: January 22, 2014
Accepted: February 26, 2014
Published online: April 21, 2014
Core Tip

Core tip: Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) therapy is needed to ablate wider range of region than targeted tumor, including surrounding liver tissues that involve micrometastases and microvascular invasion. The local recurrence rate tends to be lower in hepatocellular carcinoma patients with an adequate ablation margin, and thus, it is essential to assess safety margin accurately to reduce local recurrence. From this point of view, we need to focus on the achievement of a sufficient ablation margin as well the lack of tumor vascular enhancement for the assessment of successful RFA. However, inflammatory hyperemia due to RFA which often appears as peripheral rim enhancement, and non-typical imaging features of tumor recurrence sometimes lead to the inappropriate diagnosis.