Background: We evaluated whether color Doppler ultrasound (US) had diagnostic accuracy equal to dynamic computed tomography (CT) and whether performing dynamic CT and Doppler US together would be more informative in preoperative diagnosis of renal solid tumors.
Methods: A total of 110 renal solid tumors smaller than 7 cm were evaluated with dynamic CT and Doppler US. We compared the enhancement and the color flow patterns with the histopathological subtypes.
Results: Eighty-seven (95.6%) of 91 clear cell carcinomas showed rich enhancement in the cortical nephrographic phase (CNP) and 82 (90.1%) of them had color flow in the Doppler US. Of the total of 110 tumors, nine (8.1%) did not show color flow in spite of rich enhancement in the CNP. Conversely, eight (7.2%) of the 110 tumors showed color flow in spite of poor enhancement, including two chromophobe cell carcinomas and two metastatic renal tumors.
Conclusions: The enhancement pattern in dynamic CT and the color flow pattern in Doppler US were different among the subtypes of RCC. Color Doppler US had diagnostic accuracy equal to dynamic CT in most patients with renal solid tumors. Although Doppler US may play a unique role in the diagnosis of some renal parenchymal solid tumors, it is sufficient to perform dynamic CT alone for diagnosis of clear cell carcinoma.