Infusion hepatic angiography in diagnosis of liver metastases

Infusion hepatic angiography was used, together with conventional angiography, for diagnosis in 68 patients with liver metastases. The combination of both techniques led to a diagnostic accuracy of 97%. Metastases were missed in only two patients, both of whom had underlying liver or biliary disease. In a comparison of the two techniques, the infusion study was found diagnostically essential in five patients (7%) and afforded improved diagnosis in 49 others (72%). In 10 patients (15%), it gave equivalent information; and in four patients (6%) less information than the conventional technique. Infusion hepatic angiography is a useful complementary technique in antatomic liver diagnosis, especially in its ability to improve upon the diagnostic accuracy of the capillary phase of hepatic angiography.