Objective To investigate the feasibility of contrast-enhanced ultrasound(CEUS) Liver Imaging Reporting and Data System (LI-RADS) v 2017 in improving the diagnostic ability of inexperienced CEUS physician to predict focal liver lesion (FLL) as hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and other diseases. Methods The imaging and clinical data of 225 focal liver lesions were retrospectively analyzed. HCC and non-HCC (including common benign and Other Hepatic Malignancies，OM) were diagnosed by group A (Two inexperienced CEUS physicians)and B(Two senior CEUS physicians) using traditional methods respectively

and then each nodule was classified to a category according to CEUS LI-RADS v2017 by group A. The reference standard was based on histopathological or clinical diagnosis. The diagnostic efficacies of HCC by group A and B were analyzed .RESULTS The accuracy（AC）

sensitivity(SE)

specificity(SP)

positive predictive value(PPV) and negative predictive value(NPV) of HCC diagnosis using conventional methods in group A and B were:70.22% and 89.33%

81.06% and 96.21%

54.84% and 79.57%

71.81% and 86.99%

67.11% and 93.67%

respectively

with statistically significant differences (All P < 0.05).The diagnostic sensitivity and negative predictive value of group A were improved to 96.97% and 92.45% when using LR-3

4 and 5 as the diagnostic criteria of HCC

the accuracy was improved to 84.00% when using LR-4 and 5 as the criteria

and the specificity and positive predictive value were improved to 90.32% and 91.35% when using LR-5 as the standard

all of which were higher than the diagnostic efficacy of traditional diagnostic methods (P < 0.05)and the specificity was higher than that of group B (P < 0.05).Conclusion The CEUS LI-RADS algorithm has a good guiding effect on improving the diagnostic efficiency of inexperienced CEUS physician in predicting HCC in patients at risk for hepatocellular carcinoma

and is worthy of promotion and application in clinical work.