{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,22]],"date-time":"2026-08-22T04:27:40Z","timestamp":1787372860620,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":11,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"16","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,20]],"date-time":"2026-08-20T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1787184000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"1\u00b73\u00b75 projects for Artificial Intelligence","award":["ZYAI24056"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["ZYAI24056"]}]},{"name":"1\u00b73\u00b75 projects for Artificial Intelligence","award":["ZYAI24035"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["ZYAI24035"]}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100013365","name":"West China Hospital, Sichuan University","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100013365","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/04cjrj888","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"Sichuan Science and Technology Program","award":["2024NSFSC0660"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2024NSFSC0660"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["J. Clin. Med.","JCM"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background\/Objectives: Liver metastasis after surgery for adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a critical factor affecting patient prognosis; however, relevant ultrasound imaging features remain poorly characterized. This retrospective study aims to systematically describe the conventional ultrasound and contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) features of post-surgical hepatic metastases from ACC and to evaluate the clinical utility of ultrasonography in the diagnosis and follow-up. Methods: A total of 10 patients with post-surgical ACC liver metastases via ultrasound-guided liver biopsy between January 2000 and June 2026 at West China Hospital of Sichuan University were retrospectively enrolled. All patients underwent conventional ultrasound (B-mode and color Doppler flow imaging, CDFI) and CEUS. Given the small sample size, only descriptive statistics were performed, and all findings should be interpreted as exploratory. Results: All 10 patients were female (age range: 38\u201356 years), 70% had multiple lesions. On B-mode ultrasound, 80% of lesions appeared hypoechoic, 100% exhibited heterogeneous internal echotexture, 80% had irregular shapes, and 60% displayed well-defined margins. CDFI detected internal or perilesional blood flow signals in 90% of lesions, predominantly perilesional (50%). CEUS demonstrated arterial-phase hyperenhancement in all cases (50% heterogeneous hyperenhancement, 30% peripheral-dominant enhancement, and 20% ring-like nodular hyperenhancement), followed by rapid wash-out during the portal venous or delayed phases, with 100% of lesions showing hypoenhancement at 180 s. Conclusions: These exploratory findings suggest that post-surgical ACC liver metastases typically manifest on conventional ultrasound as hypoechoic, heterogeneous solid masses with variable margins and predominant perilesional blood flow. CEUS reveals a characteristic \u201cfast-in, fast-out\u201d malignant enhancement pattern. CEUS may serve as a useful adjunct to conventional imaging within a multimodal surveillance strategy, but larger prospective studies are needed to confirm its diagnostic value.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/jcm15166442","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,20]],"date-time":"2026-08-20T09:48:31Z","timestamp":1787219311000},"page":"6442","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["A Retrospective Study of Ultrasonographic Features of Hepatic Metastases Following Adrenal Cortical Carcinoma Resection"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"15","author":[{"given":"Rongchen","family":"Wang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Medical Ultrasound, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3667-4862","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yang","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Medical Ultrasound, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,20]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","first-page":"202","article-title":"Adrenal cortical carcinoma\u2014A case series and literature review of aggressive adrenal incidentalomas","volume":"125","author":"Verlinde","year":"2025","journal-title":"Acta Chir. 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