Factor analysis in successive hepatobiliary imaging of native and transplant livers

A young male suffering from fulminant hepatic failure of unknown origin had an auxiliary partial orthotopic liver transplantation performed. The aim of the present study was to test the performance of factor analysis of medical image sequences (FAMIS) in the post-transplantation monitoring of the graft and native liver functions.

Four successive hepatobiliary studies within 63 days following transplantation using 99mTc-mebrofenin were performed (on days 13,20,34,63). The 60 one-minute dynamic series were subjected to two successive FAMIS procedures.

For all studies, except the first, FAMIS was able to extract three factor couples (factor images and factors or curves) those of the native liver, the graft liver and the biliary region. The factors time evolution in uptake and excretion components showed the correlations between clinical status and scintigraphic results and helped interpretation of biochemical tests.

The possible utility of systematic liver transplant monitoring by radionuclide hepatobiliary imaging in identification of complications requiring medical or surgical intervention in graft livers was demonstrated. Furthermore, our study showed the functional recovery potential of the native liver in patients suffering from fulminant hepatitis.