Hepatic cavernous hemangioma: diagnosis with 99mTc-labeled red cells and single-photon emission CT.

During the performance of high-resolution real-time abdominal sonography, small echogenic hepatic masses are frequently discovered. A second imaging test to confirm the suspected diagnosis of hemangioma is often required. Planar labeled red-cell imaging will often not detect hemangiomas smaller than 3 cm. We studied 14 patients with labeled red-cell scintigraphy and single-photon emission CT (SPECT). Six hemangiomas were diagnosed by SPECT that would have been missed by planar imaging alone. All six were smaller than 2.5 cm. With the addition of SPECT, labeled red-cell scintigraphy has specificity and sensitivity that make it at least as reliable as dynamic CT for the noninvasive diagnosis of hepatic cavernous hemangioma.