Contrast (Sonazoid)-Enhanced US as a Screening Tool for Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Cirrhosis: An Exploratory Cross-sectional Study

B-mode ultrasonography (B-US), a standard method of surveillance of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), has a fair sensitivity of 63% in detecting early stage HCC. Sonazoid, a contrast agent for ultrasonography, has reported to have superior sensitivity in detecting focal liver lesion since it has ability of Kupffer phase imaging as well as vascular phase imaging. So our aim is to compare the detection rate of early stage HCC and false referral rate of HCC between B-mode US and Sonazoid-enhanced ultrasonography (S-US) within the same prospective data group. Our hypothesis is that S-US has superior detection rate of early stage HCC (5%) than that of B-mode US (3%).