OBJECTIVETo evaluate the effectiveness of dynamic SPECT (99m)Tc-galactosyl human serum albumin (GSA) scintigraphy on the assessment of reserve function of cirrhosis liver.

METHODSFrom January 2010 to December 2011, 55 patients with cirrhosis liver were enrolled in this study. The case numbers of male and female were 43 and 12 respectively and the age was (51 ± 9) years (ranging from 35 to 69 years). After routine biochemistry test, CT scan and (99m)Tc-GSA dynamic SPECT scan were performed in turn using a juxtaposed SPECT/CT system. Then the morphologic volume of liver parenchyma (MLV), functional liver volume (FLV) and the hepatic cell absorption rate constant (GSA-K) were calculated. The correlations between GSA-K and routine biochemistry test, Child-Pugh score, indocyanine green clearance rate (ICG-K) were analyzed. The patients were further divided into 3 groups according to whether there was occlusion or stenosis in the main branch of left portal vein (group 1, n = 5), right portal vein (group 2, n = 13) or not (group 3, n = 37) and the regional hepatic functions index of the 3 groups were compared.

RESULTSThe value of FLV of the whole, left and right liver was (594 ± 152) ml, (244 ± 119) ml and (356 ± 171) ml, respectively. There were correlations between GSA-K and total bilirubin, prothrombintime, Child-Pugh score and ICG-K (r = -0.730--0.298, P < 0.05). The FLV and MLV ratios of involved hemiliver to uninvolved hemiliver were 0.09 ± 0.06 and 0.30 ± 0.14 in group 1, 0.57 ± 0.43 and 1.08 ± 0.63 in group 2, 0.71 ± 0.30 and 0.71 ± 0.48 in group 3. The difference in MLV-FLV ratio was signifcant between group 1 and group 3, between group 2 and group 3 (P = 0.000).

CONCLUSIONSThe dynamic SPCECT (99m)Tc-GSA scintigraphy can not only assess the whole liver function of cirrhosis liver effectively, but also evaluate the variation of regional liver function accurately.