ROLE OF COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY IN EVALUATION OF PARENCHYMAL FOCAL LESIONS OF LIVER

• Published in: Journal of evolution of medical and dental sciences Vol. 4; no. 36; pp. 6257 - 6268
• Main Authors: Gupta, Kamlesh, Gauba, Neelam, Gupta, Garima
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Akshantala Enterprises Private Limited 04.05.2015
• Subjects: Abscess; CT imaging; Detectors; Diagnosis; Health aspects; Histochemistry; Liver; Medical colleges; Medical research; Medicine, Experimental; Metastasis
• ISSN: 2278-4748; 2278-4802
• DOI: 10.14260/jemds/2015/910

BACKGROUND: Of the various pathologies that afflict the liver, liver masses form an important group. Computed tomography (CT) is the imaging modality most often used to evaluate focal liver lesions. OBJECTIVE: To characterize focal hepatic lesions using multi detector computed tomogram (MDCT) and determines its sensitivity and specificity in diagnosing various lesions. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was conducted on hundred patients in the Department of Radiodiagnosis and Imaging, Government Medical College, Amritsar from August 2012 to October 2014. Patients with clinical symptoms, laboratory finding referable to the hepato-biliary system, palpable right upper quadrant mass or incidentally detected liver masses with ultrasound or CT were included in the study. The MDCT findings were correlated with serology, histopathology, surgical findings or with therapeutic response in 75 out of 100 patients. Sensitivity and specificity of CT scan in diagnosing and characterizing focal hepatic lesions was then calculated. RESULTS: Out of 100 patients, 64(64%) patients had benign and 36(36%) had malignant lesions. On later histopathological or serological correlation, definite diagnosis was made in 75 cases. The sensitivity and specificity of multidetector CT scan for the detection and characterization of amebic abscess, pyogenic abscesses, hydatid cyst, primary hepatic malignancies and metastasis was 94.7% and 96.4%, 80% and 98.3%, 100% and 100%, 87.5% and 98.5%, 100% and 98% respectively. Thus, in the present study, sensitivity of MDCT in diagnosing focal hepatic lesions was found to be between 80-100% and specificity to be between 96.4-100%. CONCLUSIONS: MDCT is a highly sensitive noninvasive tool for detection and characterization of focal hepatic lesions. KEYWORDS: Hepatic lesions, multidetector CT scan, radiology.