The usefulness of⁹⁹Tc-PMT delayed hepatobiliary imaging in the diagnosis of small hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract

This investigation was aimed to assess the usefulness of delayed hepatobiliary imaging in the diagnosis of small hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Sixty-two patients with this hepatic cancer were included in the study. 56 males and 6 females, with a mean age of 50.6 yr. (32–72 years old). All patients were performed by surgery, verified histologically, and these tumors were smaller than 5cm. Liver scans were performed 5 minutes, 2 hours and 5 hours after the administration of radiopharmaceutices. In 31 of the 62 patients (50%), the tumor exhibited equal radioactivity uptake or greater radioactivity uptake than the surrounding liver in delayed imaging. And the sensitivity was 33.3% (2/6), 41.2% (7/17), 60.0% (9/15) and 54.2% (13/24) in the tumor size was ⩽2 cm, 2–3cm, 3–4 cm and 4–5 cm, respectively. The smallest mass to be detected was only 1.2 cm. The uptake of radiopharmaceutic was nonsignificantly related to serum AFP level and hepatic cirrhosis (P>0.05). These results show that^99mTc-PMT delayed hepatobiliary imaging can be useful in the diagnosis of small hepatocellular carcinoma.