FACTOR-ANALYSIS IN SUCCESSIVE HEPATOBILIARY IMAGING OF NATIVE AND TRANSPLANT LIVERS

A young male patient suffering from fulminant hepatic failure of unkno wn origin had an auxiliary partial orthotopic liver transplantation pe rformed. The aim of the present study was to test the performance of f actor analysis of medical image sequences (FAMIS) in the post-transpla ntation monitoring of the graft and native liver functions. Methods: F our successive hepatobiliary studies within 63 days following transpla ntation using Tc-99m-mebrofenin were performed (on days 13, 20, 34, 63 ). The 60 one-minute dynamic series were subjected to two successive F AMIS procedures. Results: For all studies, except the first, FAMIS was able to extract three factor couples (factor images and factors or cu rves) those of the native liver, the graft liver and the biliary regio n. The factors lime evolution in uptake and excretion components showe d the correlations between clinical status and scintigraphic results a nd helped in interpretation of biochemical tests. Conclusion: The poss ible utility of systematic liver transplant monitoring by radionuclide hepatobiliary imaging in identification of complications requiring me dical or surgical intervention in graft livers was demonstrated. Furth ermore, our study showed the functional recovery potential of the nati ve liver in patients suffering from fulminant hepatitis.