Diagnostic ability of hepatobiliary scintigraphy.

Morphological aspects of biliary images were observed by the hepatobiliary scintigraphy using 99mTc-PI (pyridoxylidene isoleucine). Our study was made mainly on the diagnostic ability of the scintigram in various hepatobiliary diseases. Diagnostic findings were observed in 53.8% of the cases with intrahepatic stones and all cases with cholangioma. In the stone of the common bile duct and extrahepatic biliary cancer, the diagnostic findings were observed in 42.3% and 37.5% respectively. Hepatobiliary scintigraphy was less reliable for the diagnosis of the lesions in the gallbladder. The findings by hepatobiliary scintigraphy were as same as those by X-ray basically. In the cases showing the diagnostic finding by hepatobiliary scintigraphy, it seems to be possible to distinguish the stone from the cancer. Contrary to X-ray picture, scintigram is inferior in the image. So, it is necessary to perform ERCP or PTC to investigate fully the hepatobiliary lesions.