To assess the clinical application value of transhepatic arterial contrast-enhanced ultrasonography in evaluating the therapeutic effect of transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Thirty-eight patients with 48 lesions of HCC underwent TACE at the First Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital from September 2018 to February 2019. All of them underwent preoperative and postoperative transhepatic arterial contrast-enhanced ultrasonography to evaluate the therapeutic effect by observing the enhancement in tumor and drainage area. The outcomes of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) one month after TACE were used for comparison. The results of transhepatic arterial contrast-enhanced ultrasonography and MRI were compared by the χ² test, and the Kappa test was used to evaluate the consistency of the results of transhepatic arterial contrast-enhanced ultrasonography and MRI.

The enhancement in tumor immediately after TACE was not different from the result of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) one month after TACE (P=0.289). The enhancement in tumor and drainage area immediately after TACE was not different from the outcomes of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) one month after TACE (P=1.000). The Kappa in observing the enhancement in tumor and drainage area was higher than that in observing the enhancement in tumor (0.780 vs 0.664, P＜0.001). The specificity, sensitivity, and accuracy in observing the enhancement in both tumor and drainage area were 84.2%, 93.1%, and 89.5%, respectively, which were higher than those in observing the enhancement in tumor alone (79.3%, 89.4%, and 83.3%).

Transhepattic arterial contrast-enhanced ultrasonography could observe the enhancement in tumor and drainage area immediately after TACE, and has high clinical value in evaluating the therapeutic effect of TACE.