Abstract: Objective To investigate the application of superb micro-vascular imaging （SMI） in the evaluation of blood suply in intrahepaitc lesions in patients with primary liver cancer（PLC） underwent transcatheter arterial chemoembolization （TACE）. Methods 45 patients with PLC were recruited in our hospital between January 2014 and December 2015. All patients received TACE, and 1 month later,they received computer tomography （CT）,SMI and color doppler flowimaging（CDFI）. The blood supply of lesions was compared with the contrast of enhanced CT scan. Results A total of 56 focci was found in the 45 patients with PLC,including 35 with single and 10 with multiple （21 foci）. The ability of enhanced CT scan in assessing lesion blood supply was better than CDFI （x²=38.205,P<0.001） or SMI （x²=12.010,P=0.001）;SMI assessment of blood supply was better than CDFI （x²=9.583,P=0.002）; furthermore,the diagnostic efficacy in assessing the blood supply by the area under the ROC curve with the CT scan as the golden criteria showed that the SMI was better than CDFI （P=0.031）,the sensitivity,accuracy and negative predictive value by SMI were 62.4%,58.9% and 31.5%,much better than by CDFI （30.4%,28.4% and 21.1%,x²=20.612,P<0.001, x²=10.251,P=0.001,x²=2.956,P=0.041）;SMI clearly showed the blood suply in lesions with diameters less than 2.0cm, while CDFI showed no blood flow signal in the same lesions（x²=5.758,P=0.016）,and SMI and CDFI both showed the blood flow in lesions greater than 2 cm,still the SMI assessment was better than CDFI（x²=6.560,P=0.010）. Conclusion SMI technology is a new approach of blood flow imaging, which can be used to detect the blood supply of tumor foci, which might provide a new method for the clinical evaluation of the curative effect of liver cancer after TACE.

Key words: Hepatoma, Transcatheter arterial chemoembolization, Superb micro-vascular imaging, Color doppler flow imaging