{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,17]],"date-time":"2026-09-17T13:01:55Z","timestamp":1789650115617,"version":"4.0.0"},"reference-count":23,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,17]],"date-time":"2026-09-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1789603200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Bingtuan Science and Technology Program","award":["2024ZD050"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2024ZD050"]}]},{"name":"Bingtuan Science and Technology Program","award":["2024ZD018"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2024ZD018"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Pathogens"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Hepatic alveolar echinococcosis (HAE) is characterized by infiltrative growth and remodeling of perilesional host tissue, including microvascular changes. We investigated whether quantitative contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) could characterize perilesional perfusion and its animal-level association with CD34-positive cell density in a standardized rat model. Twenty female Sprague Dawley rats underwent ultrasound-guided intrahepatic HAE modeling and CEUS 10 weeks later. Peak enhancement (PE), rise time (RT), time to peak (TTP), wash-in rate (WiR), wash-in perfusion index (WiPI), and wash-in area under the curve (WiAUC) were measured in the perilesional zone and reference liver parenchyma. CD34-positive cell density was quantified by digital pathology. The perilesional zone showed higher PE, WiR, WiPI, and WiAUC and shorter RT and TTP than the reference liver parenchyma (all FDR-adjusted p &lt; 0.001). CD34-positive cell density correlated positively with PE (\u03c1 = 0.696, FDR-adjusted p = 0.004), WiR (\u03c1 = 0.525, FDR-adjusted p = 0.026), WiPI (\u03c1 = 0.614, FDR-adjusted p = 0.012), and WiAUC (\u03c1 = 0.534, FDR-adjusted p = 0.026), but not with RT or TTP. Within this experimental model, these findings indicate increased and accelerated perilesional perfusion and support quantitative CEUS as a contrast-enhanced imaging-based approach for characterizing its relationship with local microvascularity.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/pathogens15090987","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,17]],"date-time":"2026-09-17T11:41:35Z","timestamp":1789645295000},"page":"987","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Quantitative Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound Characterization of Perilesional Perfusion and Its Association with CD34-Positive Cell Density in a Rat Model of Hepatic Alveolar Echinococcosis"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"15","author":[{"given":"Huan","family":"Zhao","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ultrasound, First Affiliated Hospital of Shihezi University, Shihezi 832008, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-original-draft","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"formal-analysis","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Ya","family":"Xu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ultrasound, First Affiliated Hospital of Shihezi University, Shihezi 832008, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"resources","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"data-curation","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Xinyao","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ultrasound, First Affiliated Hospital of Shihezi University, Shihezi 832008, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"data-curation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Zhen","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ultrasound, First Affiliated Hospital of Shihezi University, Shihezi 832008, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Yuhang","family":"Cheng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ultrasound, First Affiliated Hospital of Shihezi University, Shihezi 832008, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Jingyu","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ultrasound, First Affiliated Hospital of Shihezi University, Shihezi 832008, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Changhui","family":"Qu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ultrasound, First Affiliated Hospital of Shihezi University, Shihezi 832008, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Dan","family":"Dong","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Medicine, Shihezi University, Shihezi 832003, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"funding-acquisition","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Ting","family":"Ma","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ultrasound, First Affiliated Hospital of Shihezi University, Shihezi 832008, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"supervision","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0000-8082-471X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jian","family":"Dong","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ultrasound, First Affiliated Hospital of Shihezi University, Shihezi 832008, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"funding-acquisition","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"supervision","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"project-administration","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,17]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"393","DOI":"10.1055\/s-0041-1730925","article-title":"Hepatic Alveolar Echinococcosis","volume":"41","author":"Spahr","year":"2021","journal-title":"Semin. 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