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A 77-year-old man with a stent in place for biliary drainage was examined. Intravenously administered 99mTc-diisopropyl-IDA showed little accumulation of activity in the abdomen while the stent was draining internally. Upon switching the stent to external drainage, it was possible to monitor the slow movement of the bile which contained radioactivity. Imaging over the liver and comparing activity changes with a 99mTc standard showed that the decrease in hepatic radioactivity was identical to that occurring in the 99mTc standard. The liver was thus in a "steady state" for excretion of the 99mTc hepatobiliary agent, for it was extracting as much radioactivity from the circulation as it was excreting.