BLOOD-POOL SCINTIGRAPHY IN HEPATIC HEMANG IOMA

Blood pool scintigraphy is a useful tool in the diagnosis of hepatic h emangioma. We reviewed retrospectively the clinical histories of 24 pa tients with abnormal blood pool scintigraphies and a presumptive diagn osis of hepatic hemangioma, based on clinical or ultrasonographic find ings. In 20 of these patients, blood pool scintigraphy was diagnostic for hepatic hemangioma. The diagnosis was confirmed by an asymptomatic clinical evolution of 12 to 78 months in all the patients, CT scan in 8, angiography in 5 and liver biopsy in one. In the remaining 4 patie nts scintigraphy ruled out the presence of a hepatic hemangioma. Our r esults are similar to previous reports in the literature and blood poo l scintigraphy has a high specificity for the diagnosis of hepatic hem angioma.