title: Nuclear medicine techniques for the liver and biliary system. Update for the 1990s.
abstract: Nuclear medicine imaging techniques for the liver and biliary system have shifted from anatomic imaging techniques to methods that rely on measurement of specific pathophysiologic processes for disease detection. Hepatic arterial perfusion scintigraphy (HAPS) has allowed detection of early metastatic liver disease that escapes detection on computed tomographic scans and magnetic resonance images. Other nuclear techniques are useful for characterization of solitary liver mass(es) or detection of diffuse disease. Hepatobiliary scintigraphy has a strong potential role in the evaluation of 'functional' disorders of the biliary tract, especially as the use of laparoscopic cholecystectomy increases.
authors.affiliation: Division of Nuclear Medicine, Shands Hospital, Gainesville, Florida.
authors.forename: W E
authors.initials: WE
authors.lastname: Drane
mesh_terms: D001660:Biliary Tract Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006801:Humans; D008107:Liver Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging