Ultrasonic and scintigraphic imaging for malignant liver tumours in heavy drinkers

One hundred and ninetynine patients (111 with and 88 without malignant tumours) living in north east Italy, a region with a high alcohol consumption (21 litres of pure alcohol per capita), had scintigraphic and echographic liver examinations. Focal coloid defect(s) were seen in 57.6% of those with neoplasm and 47.7% of those with parenchymal non-malignant liver diseases either alone or with other changes on radioisotopic scan. Echogenic lesions on ultrasonography were confirmed in 46.2% of the livers with focal defect(s). In 80 livers histologically examined, radio-colloid imaging showed relatively good sensitivity (77%) but a bad specificity (33%) in the overall population studied and also (74% and 35% respectively) in the cancer patient group. On the contrary, echography demonstrated an excellent specificity in detecting malignancy (98%–100%) and echogenic lesions were predominantly seen in patients with neoplasm. Ultrasonography produced, however, an elevated number of false negatives primarily in cancer patients (38%). A suitable diagnostic accuracy for malignant liver tumours was achieved when scintigraphic and echographic data were simultaneously interpreted.