A clinical study of virtual endoscopy ultrasound Fly-Thru in the diagnosis of obstructive degree and nature for obstructive bile duct diseases

Objective To investigate the utility of virtual endoscopy ultrasound Fly-Thru in the diagnosis of obstructive bile duct diseases. Methods One-hundred patients with obstructed bile duct diseases underwent Fly-Thru examination. All Fly-Thru images were reviewed by two radiologists with different experience. The capabilities of Fly-Thru for bile duct obstructive degree evaluation and distinguishing malignant lesion from benign one were assessed respectively. Results The accuracy and sensitivity of Fly-Thru image in obstruction degree evaluation were 70.59% and 89.2% (95%CI 74.6%-96.9%). The diagnosis accuracy of 2DUS for lesion characteristics increased from 80% to 84%, accompany with Fly-Thru images, especially for lesions in common bile duct from 77.2% to 86.0%(χ2=14.399, P=0.001). Conclusions The virtual endoscopy ultrasound Fly-Thru is only partly capable to display the obstructed degree of some bile ducts, but it can improve the diagnostic accuracy of common bile duct diseases. Key words: Ultrasonography, three-dimensional; Bile duct disease; Fly-Thru