title: Clinical utility of hepatic-perfusion computerized tomography in living-donor liver transplantation: a preliminary study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Vascular complications are a primary diagnostic consideration in liver transplant recipients, with an overall incidence of 9%. Cross-sectional imaging techniques provide information regarding vascular structure and luminal patency but can not quantitatively assess hepatocyte damage in the liver graft parenchyma. Perfusion computerized tomography (CT) is a recently developed method that allows for quantitative evaluation of hemodynamic changes in tissue. Our objective was to evaluate the clinical utility of perfusion CT in assessing vascular complications during living-donor liver transplantation (LDLT).
  
  
  METHODS
  The 33 recipients were divided into 3 groups according to Doppler ultrasonographic findings: hepatic arterial complication group, portal venous complication group, and hepatic venous complication group. Blood volume (BV), blood flow (BF), arterial liver perfusion (ALP), portal venous perfusion (PVP), and hepatic perfusion index (HPI) were calculated for the affected vascular territory regions.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Compared with normal liver parenchyma, BV, BF, ALP, and HPI were significantly lower in the hepatic arterial complication group. Although PVP and BV were significantly lower, ALP, HPI, and BF were higher in the affected vascular territory region than in normal liver parenchyma for the portal venous complication group. In the hepatic venous complication group, PVP was significantly higher and BF, ALP, and HPI significantly lower in the affected vascular territory regions than in normal liver parenchyma.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Perfusion CT imaging is a noninvasive technique that enables the quantitative evaluation of vascular complications in the graft parenchyma after LDLT and permits a quantitative evaluation of the treatment response.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, School of Medicine, Atatürk University, Erzurum, Turkey. Electronic address: akkanrad@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kantarci
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, School of Medicine, Atatürk University, Erzurum, Turkey.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Pirimoglu
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, School of Medicine, Atatürk University, Erzurum, Turkey.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ozturk
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, School of Medicine, Atatürk University, Erzurum, Turkey.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Aydinli
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, School of Medicine, Atatürk University, Erzurum, Turkey.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ogul
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Yozgat, School of Medicine, Bozok University, Bozok, Turkey.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Okur
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, School of Medicine, Atatürk University, Erzurum, Turkey.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kizrak
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, School of Medicine, Atatürk University, Erzurum, Turkey.
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Ozyigit
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology and Reanimation, School of Medicine, Atatürk University, Erzurum, Turkey.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Celik
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000601:surgery*; D016031:Liver Transplantation; D019520:Living Donors; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D055420:Perfusion Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*