Biodistribution of Lipiodol following hepatic arterial injection

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Abstract
Thirteen patients undergoing selective coeliac angiography before insertion of an indwelling hepatic arterial cannula underwent injection of 3 ml radiolabelled Lipiodol (2 MBq 131I) into the hepatic artery at the end of the procedure. At subsequent laparotomy 1–9 days later, biopsies were taken from normal liver and metastases. The radioactivity of this material was measured to establish the tumour: liver ratios. Two patients with large metastases (> 10 cm in diameter) had low ratios. In the remainder, the median ratio at 24 h was 1.5:1 (range 1.1–2.5:1;n = 5) and 2.6:1 (range 1.5–64.0:1;n = 6) at 3–9 days. Four patients underwent single photon emission computed tomography, which confirmed selective retention of Lipiodol in small metastases, although no activity was detected in a large deposit (> 15 cm) 10 days after injection. The tumour: liver ratio in the other three patients increased from 3.0–5.6:1 on day 1 to 4.5–7.2:1 on day 6. This study suggests that Lipiodol may be a useful therapeutic delivery agent to small colorectal liver metastases.