[Computerized tomography of the liver. Accuracy of the method in biopsy proven diagnoses (author's transl)]

To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of computerized tomography (CT) in detecting liver disease, CT-findings of 320 patients examined with a slow CT-scanner (2.5 min scanning time/slice) could be compared to the results of bioptic procedures. Sensitivity was 81% for circumscript liver disease, specificity was 85%. In 69% of the cases, a type-specific diagnosis of circumscript liver diseases was possible, this percentage increased by 5% if patients with a true-positive differential diagnosis were included. 73% of the patients with liver metastases were correctly identified to have metastatic liver disease. Obstructive jaundice was correctly identified in 77% and correctly excluded in all patients with medical jaundice. For a large variety of hepatocellular disease, ratio of true positive diagnoses was 16% only. The value of CT in hepatocellular disease concerns exclusion of presumed space-occupying lesions. In a control group of 310 patients with only "clinically" and not bioptically confirmed diagnoses, specificity was 96% and sensitivity concerning focal liver disease was 82%. Our results prove CT to be a valuable non-invasive tool in the evaluation of circumscript liver disease.