Use of the Scintigraphic Method In Morphological Exploration of the Liver during Amoebiasis

Increasing recourse is being had to the scintigraphic method of morphological exploration of the amoebic liver owing to the frequency of hepatic localizations of amoebiasis and to the difficulties of clinical and paraclinical diagnosis of amoebic abscess of the organ. The method yields data of great importance in this field. The authors quote the statistics of examinations they have carried out and endeavour to draw conclusions from them. They describe the examination technique from the following points of view: (a) The choice of materials (I131-labelled Rose Bengal and Au198 in colloidal solution) with their advantages and disadvantages; (b) The apparatus used, with special reference to the problem of collimation; (c) Actual performance of the examination, involving a functional study and the scintigram itself, which has to be carried out from different angles; (d) Repetition of the examination after an interval of several months. The authors then deal with the scintigraphic semiology of hepatic localizations of amoebiasis; they analyse the elementary abnormal images, study their topography, and describe their associations in the case of hepatitis and in cases of amoebic abscess. They then study the development of these images with time and report a number of cases for which the scintigraphic examination was repeated after an interval of several weeks or months. Finally, they enunciate the indications for application of the method, which provides essential data for the positive diagnosis of amoebic abscess of the liver and for topographical and morphological diagnosis (of particular interest surgically), and which makes it possible to observe the progress of the disease and the healing of the abscess after medical treatment. (author)