[X-ray diagnosis of liver and biliary tract diseases]

The paper deals with combined diagnosis of hepatic and biliary diseases, involving a wide range of nosological entities. It shows the potentialities of currently available diagnostic techniques for the most common diseases. The authors examined 175 patients with acute and chronic hepatitis, 120 with hepatic cirrhosis, 486 with cystic changes, 324 with benign tumors, 292 with malignant tumors, 21 with hepatic abscess, 527 with cholecystitis, 566 with cholelithiasis. Cancer of the gall-bladder was in 10 patients, its polyps were in 18, cancers of the common bile duct and bile papilla were in 6 and 4 patients, respectively. A complex of the used diagnostic techniques involved ultrasonic scanning, X-ray computed tomography, hepatobiliary scintigraphy, angiography, retrograde cholangiopancreatography, transhepatic cholangiography, etc. The authors have demonstrated that each method used is highly diagnostically effective. At the same time they have shown the limits of each technique in the diagnosis of certain diseases. The authors' data suggest that the total efficiency of the applied complex of diagnostic means approaches 100%.