The usefulness of 99mTc-PMT hepatobiliary scintigraphy for the diagnosis of hepatic tumor lesions

Hepatobiliary scintigraphy using 99mTc-pyridoxyl-methyltriptophan was employed 47 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and 31 patients with other tumor lesions in the liver to evaluate the usefulness of this method for the diagnosis of hepatic tumor lesions. As positive images were obtained in 28 out of 47 patients with HCC and none of those with other hepatic tumor lesions, the sensitivity and specificity for the diagnosis of HCC were 59.5 % and 100.0 % respectively. Classifying HCC into three types, nodular, massive and diffuse, the positive tumor's image was obtained 74.0 %, most frequently in the nodular type, 83.3 % in the smaller than 3 cm and 66.7 % in the larger than 3 cm in diameter respectively. As for massive and diffuse type, the positive rates were 53.8 % and 14.2 % respectively. Therefore, this imaging method seems to be clinically useful especially for the diagnosis of HCC in the early stage. (author)