Background and aims: Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinomas (ICCs) are usually adenocarcinomas with fibrotic and hypovascular stroma. Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinomas in cirrhosis and precirrhotic liver (ICC-cirrhosis) are increasingly being diagnosed, and can display hypervascular enhancement resembling a hepatocellular carcinoma on dynamic imaging.
Methods: In this study using ICC-cirrhosis (71 cases), ICC with non-specific reactive changes (ICC-reactive) (72 cases) and the cholangiocarcinoma component of combined hepatocellular cholangiocarcinoma (HCC-ICC) (30 cases), we tried to compare the tumour vasculature.
Results: It was found that ICC-cirrhosis and the cholangiocarcinoma component of HCC-ICC showed a higher density of arteries and microvessels (1.59 ± 0.58/mm(2) (mean ± SD) and 140 ± 43/mm(2) in ICC-cirrhosis and 1.74 ± 0.67/mm(2) and 131 ± 46/mm(2) in the cholangiocarcinoma component of HCC-ICC) than in ICC-reactive (1.26 ± 0.61/mm(2) and 103 ± 45/mm(2) ). Dynamic computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed that a majority of ICC-cirrhosis displayed strong hypervascular enhancement, whereas one-third of ICC-reactive each showed strong, weak and no or minimal enhancement respectively. The increased vascular density was positively correlated with enhanced arterial phase of dynamic CT and MRI.
Conclusion: The density of arteries and microvessels of ICC-cirrhosis was higher than that in ICC-reactive and comparable to that in the cholangiocarcinoma component of HCC-ICC, and the higher density of arteries and microvessels in ICC may be responsible for the hypervascular enhancement of ICC-cirrhosis.
© 2012 John Wiley & Sons A/S.