Echographic and radionuclide detection of hepatoma

The clinical, echographic, radionuclide and CT studies of 19 patients with tissue-proved hepatoma were reviewed retrospectively. All patients had undergone ultrasound examination while 18 also had 99mTc-sulfur colloid studies, and 11 had gallium scans. Ultrasonically, the lesions were classified as discrete, sonodense (six cases), discrete sonolucent (five cases), disorganized hepatic parenchyma (six cases), and normal parenchyma (two cases). All sulfur colloid studies showed areas of decreased uptake, while all gallium scans showed relative increased uptake in the area of decreased sulfur colloid activity. It was concluded that radionuclide imaging is more accurate than ultrasound in the diagnosis of hepatome.