TABLE 1.

Benefits and Drawbacks of Using CEUS for Liver Imaging

Benefits	Drawbacks
Continuous imaging of arterial phase	Operator dependent, requires CEUS imaging expertise
High safety profile: nonnephrotoxic contrast; no ionizing radiation	Not recognized by OPTN for evaluating transplant patients
Can be performed immediately after surveillance ultrasound	Limitations in setting of severe steatosis, deep lesions, or large body habitus
Can guide interventional radiology procedures	Not suitable for HCC screening at this time
Rapid contrast clearance, allowing for multiple injections in one examination	Targets small handful of observations per examination; not suitable for complete disease staging