Hepatic extraction fraction of hepatobiliary radiopharmaceuticals measured using spectral analysis

Measuring the hepatic extraction fraction (HEF) of a hepatobiliary radiopharmaceutical helps to differentiate hepatocyte from biliary tract diseases, and it is generally performed using deconvolution analysis. In this study, we measured HEF using spectral analysis. With spectral analysis, HEF was calculated from (the sum of the spectral data obtained by spectral analysis--the highest frequency component of the spectrum) divided by (the sum of the spectral data) x 100 (%). We applied this method to dynamic liver scintigraphic data obtained from six healthy volunteers and from 46 patients with various liver diseases, using 99Tcm-N-pyridoxyl-5-methyltryptophan (PMT). We also measured HEF using deconvolution analysis, in which the modified Fourier transform technique was employed. The HEF values obtained by spectral analysis correlated closely with those obtained by deconvolution analysis (r = 0.925), suggesting our method is valid. The HEF values obtained by spectral analysis decreased as the severity of liver disease progressed. The values were 100.0 +/- 0.0%, 94.7 +/- 13.6%, 76.2 +/- 27.4%, 45.7 +/- 15.6%, 82.7 +/- 24.2% and 95.2 +/- 11.8% (mean +/- S.D.) for the normal controls (n = 6), mild liver cirrhosis (n = 16), moderate liver cirrhosis (n = 11), severe liver cirrhosis (n = 5), acute hepatitis (n = 8) and chronic hepatitis groups (n = 6), respectively. The HEF was obtained more simply and rapidly by spectral analysis than by deconvolution analysis. The results suggest that our method using spectral analysis can be used as an alternative to the conventional procedure using deconvolution analysis for measuring HEF.