[Hepatopulmonary syndrome and pulmonary perfusion scan]

We introduce you a case report of a female patient who has got a chronic liver disease and who entered our hospital with clinical suspicion of pulmonary embolism. The radionuclide lung perfusion scan using 99m Technetium-labelled with macroaggregated albumin, showed an abnormal uptake out of the lungs in liver, spleen, and kidneys. Once all possible etiologies of extrapulmonary uptake were excluded and confirming that the hepatopulmonary syndrome clinical criteria were coincident with our case, we attribute that the abnormal extrapulmonary uptake was explainable due to this syndrome. This is an hepatopulmonary syndrome case in which nuclear medicine techniques were decisive for the diagnosis in front of other diagnostic tests (radiography, echography and CT) that gave valuable but non conclusive information.