Outcome of small liver nodules detected by computed tomographic angiography in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.
OBJECTIVE
Hepatic lesions identified by computed tomography (CT) during arterial portography (CTAP) or CT hepatic arteriography (CTHA) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients are sometimes too small to be diagnosed as HCC. We undertook this cohort study to assess whether these small lesions are actually HCC, and to clarify the effectiveness of these imaging examinations in a clinical setting.


METHODS
We assessed the characteristics of 74 tiny lesions detected by CTAP and/or CTHA, but not by CT in 67 patients.


RESULTS
Seven out of 10 nodules were histologically confirmed as HCC and 18 out of 64 lesions increased in size and showed typical findings of HCC during the follow-up period. Multivariate analysis revealed that the size of the main tumor (>30 mm in diameter) was associated with the presence of tiny additional HCC lesions (P = 0.002).


CONCLUSIONS
These findings indicate that CTAP and CTHA are recommended for determining the stage of HCC, especially when the HCC nodule is larger than 30 mm in diameter.
Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, 2-5-1 Shikata-cho, Okayama, Okayama 700-8558 Japan.
Hideki
H
Ohnishi
Kohsaku
K
Sakaguchi
Kazuhiro
K
Nouso
Yoshiyuki
Y
Kobayashi
Shinichiro
S
Nakamura
Hironori
H
Tanaka
Yasuhiro
Y
Miyake
Bon
B
Shoji
Shouta
S
Iwadou
Yasushi
Y
Shiratori