[Is intravenous contrast enhancement effective in improving CT diagnosis of hepatic disease?].
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of contrast enhancement in the diagnosis of hepatic disease.


METHODS
2761 cases involving CT of the liver and abdomen were analyzed using logistic analysis. CT was either helical-CT (SDCT) or multi-detector CT (MDCT), with power injector.


RESULTS
Contrast enhancement use was 92% in liver disease and 95% in tumor cases. A typical case involved a 66-year-old man given 2-4 ml/sec of contrast material using dual injection. CT imaging was done in the equilibrium stage. The use of contrast material was effective for the diagnosis of liver tumor except in the qualitative diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma with SDCT where the odds ratio was 0.084.


CONCLUSIONS
Intravenous contrast enhancement was effective for the CT diagnosis of hepatic tumor. Dynamic CT was effective using MDCT, and dual injection of contrast material was also valid for SDCT. Multiphasic studies were needed for detecting liver tumors not only on MDCT but also on SDCT. CT imaging during the equilibrium phase alone is inadequate to document diagnosis of metastatic liver tumors. The addition of various phasic contrast materials during CT was effective in evaluating liver tumors that showed angiogenesis.
Ito
Katsuhide
K
Department of Radiology, Hiroshima University.
Ono
Chiaki
C
Kohno
Atsushi
A
Sumi
Yukiharu
Y
Honda
Masanori
M
Uchimura
Fumiaki
F
Ogawa
Kenji
K
Ohtaki
Megu
M
D000368:Aged; D003287:Contrast Media / Q000008:administration & dosage; D006801:Humans; D007275:Injections, Intravenous; D008107:Liver Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D008297:Male; D011856:Radiographic Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*
D003287:Contrast Media