CLINICAL VALUE OF LIVER SCANS

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  • 1 January 1978
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 70  (1) , 61-65
Abstract
The contribution of Tc sulfacolloid liver scans to patient care was evaluated in 200 consecutive patients; 100 in a public and 100 in a private hospital. The effect of liver scan on assessment of the patient''s problem(s) and plans made for its diagnosis or management were discussed. For the diagnosis and treatment of 30 patients with intrinsic hepatobiliary diseases, the scan was useful in 5 but was misleading in 4. Specific diagnosis was obtained by other methods which made the liver scan an unnecessary over-utilization of a diagnostic procedure in the evaluation of patients with primary liver or biliary diseases. The scan was useful in 95 of 123 patients with extrahepatic malignancy. This was mostly due to chemotherapy protocols requiring the scans. Only 18% of positive scans had no other clinical evidence for hepatic malignancy. Definite diagnosis was not made in any of the 123 patients by liver scan. In 47 miscellaneous conditions the scan was useless in 37 (79%). In 3 of these the scan was misleading and impaired patient care.