The study of liver volume measurements by multi-slice spiral CT

Objective: To compare the two liver volume measurements using multi-slice spiral CT (MSCT) for clinical reference. Methods: Twenty-four patients with hepatic disease awaiting orthotopic liver transplantation underwent multiphase MSCT of the upper abdomen. Liver volumes using two measurements (manual volume measurement and semi-automated volume measurement) before transplantation were compared with the actual liver volume (ALV) measured during transplantation by means of water' displacement. Both measurements were timed. Correlation coefficient, one way ANOVA and Bland-Airman tests were used for statistical analysis. Results: The mean liver volume estimated with the manual method and the semi-automated method were (1360±157) cm3 and (1345±152) cm3, respectively. The actual liver' volume was (1307±153) cm3. There was no significant difference between the volumes measured using the three methods (F=0.032, P>0.05). For all the patients, there was significant correlation between liver volume measured by MSCT and the actual liver volume. There was a good correlation between the liver volume measured by manual method and the actual liver volume (r=0.976, P<0.05), so did the correlation between the liver volume measured by semi-automated method and the actual liver volume (r0.987, P<0.05). And the semi-automated method took much shorter time [(9.2±1.8) min] compared with the manual method [(23.2±5.8) min]. Conclusion: Semi-automated method provided acceptable measurements for liver volume. (authors)