Intestinal obstruction diagnosed by cholescintigraphy

Radionuclide cholescintigraphy provides useful information about the dynamics of bile flow through the liver, gallbladder, bile ducts, and intestines. Besides helping to diagnose acute cholecystitis, it may provide other meaningful information to effectively alter the patient's management. Preoperative diagnosis of intestinal obstruction was made on routine cholescintigraphy and was proved subsequently at surgery.     

Biliary complications after liver transplantation: diagnosis with MR cholangiopancreatography

OBJECTIVE: We sought to evaluate MR cholangiopancreatography (MRCP) as the only imaging procedure used in the diagnosis and management of biliary complications after orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). CONCLUSION: MRCP is a useful imaging procedure in the assessment of biliary complications after OLT.     

肝移植术后胆道并发症的多层螺旋CT诊断

目的 评价MSCT在诊断肝移植术后胆道并发症中的价值.方法 83例原位肝移植术后患者因临床和生化检查可疑胆道并发症行MSCT增强检查.胆道并发症的确诊依据为直接胆道造影69例、移植肝病理11例、肝管空肠吻合术3例.分析CT诊断胆道并发症的能力,计算其敏感度、特异度、准确度、刚性预测值和阴性预测值,并用x2检验比较胆管吻合口狭窄和非吻合口狭窄的CT特征.结果 83例中,62例(74.7%)证实有胆道并发症,其中胆管吻合口狭窄32例,非吻合口狭窄21例,胆管结石16例(12例合并胆管狭窄),胆总管吻合口漏5例,胆汁瘤4例(合并胆管狭窄)、胆源性肝脓肿2例(合并胆管狭窄).CT诊断胆管狭窄的敏感度、特异度、准确度、阳性预测值、阴性预测值分别为90.6%、86.7%、89.2%、92.3%和83.9%.CT对胆管结石、胆总管吻合口漏、胆汁瘤、胆源性肝脓肿均能正确诊断,无漏诊和误诊.非吻合口狭窄表现为胆管不均匀扩张的发生率(71.4%,15/21)显著高于吻合口狭窄者(25.0%,8/32;P<0.01),而肝外胆管扩张(33.3%,7/21)和胆管均匀扩张(14.3%,3/21)的发生率均显著低于吻合口狭窄者(84.4%,27/32和68.8%,22/32;P<0.01).非吻合口狭窄肝动脉缺血的发生率(66.7%,14/21)明显高于吻合口狭窄者(15.6%,5/32;P<0.01).结论 MSCT对诊断肝移植术后胆道并发症具有重要价值,还可初步诊断胆管狭窄类型;肝动脉缺血是胆管非吻合口狭窄的重要原因.     

Biliary obstruction: treatment with self-expanding metal prostheses.

The authors percutaneously and endoscopically inserted 58 Wallstent endoprostheses in 42 consecutive patients with benign and malignant obstructive biliary stenoses. The three patients with benign obstructive jaundice were followed up for 48 months. Two of the stents occluded due to sludge formation, prompting percutaneous reentry. The 39 patients with malignant disease were followed up for 18 months. Twenty-six of these patients died 3 days to 1.5 years (mean, 133 days) after the procedure. Thirteen are alive after 2-12 months (mean, 242 days). Recurrent jaundice occurred in 11 patients (28%): in four patients due to tumor growth over the proximal end of the stent, in one patient due to excessive gallbladder hydrops, and in six patients due to liver failure. Although autopsy investigations revealed the possibility of tumor growth onto the inner surface of the stent through the stainless steel mesh of the endoprosthesis, stent occlusion by tumor ingrowth into the lumen was not encountered.     

Biliary obstruction: evaluation with three-dimensional MR cholangiography.

Three-dimensional (3D) magnetic resonance (MR) projection imaging was evaluated as a noninvasive alternative to direct cholangiography in 12 patients with malignancy-related obstructive jaundice. The 3D images of the bile ducts were formed by subjecting consecutive coronal MR images obtained with a fast imaging method to a maximum-intensity projection algorithm. Dilatation and obstruction of the biliary system were well documented in all cases, and good correlation between findings at 3D MR cholangiography and percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage performed 0-21 days later was observed.     

Positive predictive value of cholescintigraphy in common bile duct obstruction

Technetium-99m DISIDA imaging was employed in 400 patients to differentiate obstruction of the common bile duct from medical and other surgical causes of hyperbilirubinemia. Sequential anterior images demonstrated variable degrees of liver uptake, yet there was no evidence of intrabiliary or extrabiliary radioactivity for at least 4 hr after injection in 25 patients. Twenty-three patients were surgically documented to have complete obstruction of the common bile duct. One patient had hepatitis, and another had sickle cell crisis without bile duct obstruction. The remaining patients had either partial or no obstruction of the common bile duct. We conclude that the presence of liver uptake without evident biliary excretion by 4 hr on cholescintigraphy is highly sensitive and predictive of total obstruction of the common bile duct.     

Biliary atresia: US diagnosis

PURPOSE: To evaluate prospectively the sensitivity of ultrasonography (US) in the diagnosis of biliary atresia (BA), with surgery as the reference standard. MATERIALS AND METHODS: After institutional ethical approval and with informed parental consent, 90 consecutive fasting infants with conjugated hyperbilirubinemia underwent detailed US studies performed by a single operator with a 7.5-MHz curvilinear transducer and a 13.5-MHz linear-array transducer. The following features were prospectively recorded: gallbladder morphology, triangular cord sign, presence of a common bile duct, liver size and echotexture, splenic appearance, and vascular anatomy. The operator was blinded to results of other investigations. Sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values were calculated for each US variable. BA and non-BA groups were compared by means of the Fisher exact test for categorical variables and an unpaired t test for continuous variables. RESULTS: Thirty infants (13 male, 17 female) had surgically confirmed BA, and 60 (35 male, 25 female) had other documented causes of neonatal jaundice; the mean ages at US assessment were 48.5 and 52.4 days, respectively (P>.5). Eight US features showed a significant difference between BA and non-BA groups (P<.001, Fisher exact test). The features with the greatest individual sensitivity and specificity, respectively, in the diagnosis of BA were triangular cord sign (73% and 100%), abnormal gallbladder wall (91% and 95%) and shape (70% and 100%), and an absent common bile duct (93% and 92%). The hepatic artery diameter was significantly larger in infants with BA than in those without BA (mean+/-standard deviation, 2.2 mm+/-0.59 vs 1.6 mm+/-0.40, P<.001), but portal vein diameters were not significantly different. By means of all these US features, 88 of 90 infants were correctly classified as having or not having BA, for an overall accuracy of 98%. CONCLUSION: BA can be distinguished with US from other causes of conjugated hyperbilirubinemia in 98% of infants if multiple US features are carefully evaluated.     

Morphine-augmented cholescintigraphy in the diagnosis of acute cholecystitis

Cholescintigraphy is a sensitive procedure for diagnosing or excluding acute cholecystitis. However, when rapid diagnosis is critical, the requirement for delayed images (4 hr or more after injection) to minimize the false-positive rate diminishes its utility. We prospectively evaluated 40 cholescintigraphic examinations that did not visualize the gallbladder 1 hr after injection of 99mTc diisopropyliminodiacetic acid. These examinations were then augmented by administration of IV morphine, followed by an additional 30 min of imaging. After the morphine, 18 of these examinations demonstrated visualization of the gallbladder; none subsequently required surgical exploration. Of the remaining 22, who demonstrated persistent nonvisualization of the gallbladder post-morphine, 11 were explored surgically and found to be abnormal. The 11 others were treated medically. Low-dose morphine administered when the gallbladder fails to visualize after 1 hr is a useful adjunct to conventional cholescintigraphy because it reduces the time required to obtain a diagnostic result and decreases the number of false-positive results.     

胆囊切除术后出血的血管造影与介入治疗体会

目的研究胆囊切除术后腹腔出血选择性动脉造影的诊断价值及介入治疗的方法和意义。方法经选择性动脉DSA后明确胆囊切除术后出血部位共9例。对明确出血部位的5例行出血动脉栓塞术。造影阴性4例转行外科手术。结果9例中5例有血管异常改变,均为动脉性出血,表现为对比剂外溢,行靶血管栓塞术后出血停止,无复发。4例造影阴性,行外科剖腹探查术明确为静脉性出血后止血治愈。结论胆囊切除术后动脉性腹腔出血的患者DSA检查对诊断出血部位指导介入栓塞治疗有重要的临床价值。介入栓塞治疗安全、有效。     

Biliary tract complications following laparoscopic cholecystectomy: imaging and intervention.

Radiologic studies and interventional procedures were performed in a series of 13 patients with biliary complications following laparoscopic cholecystectomy, and the results were evaluated. Two categories of ductal complication--minor and major--were found. Minor complications (n = 6) included bile leaks and bilomas; these were managed with percutaneous techniques or simple surgical repair. Major complications (n = 8), consisting primarily of common hepatic duct injuries or strictures, were markedly resistant to percutaneous therapy, requiring major surgical repair (hepaticojejunostomy). Percutaneous treatment of recurrent strictures after primary repair was undertaken in three patients. Diagnostically, radionuclide imaging appeared most helpful in screening for biliary complications of laparoscopic cholecystectomy, supplemented by endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography and/or percutaneous transhepatic cholangiography for definitive diagnosis.     

Rapid and accurate diagnosis of acute cholecystitis with 99mTc-HIDA cholescintigraphy.

Technetium-99m dimethyl acetanilide iminodiacetic acid (HIDA) cholescintigraphy was performed on 90 patients with suspected acute cholecystitis. Visualization of the gallbladder established patency of the cystic duct and excluded the diagnosis of acute cholecystitis in 50 of 52 patients. Nonvisualization of the gallbladder with visualization of the common bile duct was diagnostic of acute cholecystitis in 38 patients, all subsequently proven at surgery. The observed accuracy of this procedure is 98% and specificity is 100%. The false negative rate is 5% and false positive rate is zero. Technetium-99m-HIDA has many advantages which make it the procedure of choice in evaluating a patient for suspected acute cholecystitis. It is a rapid, simple, safe examination which provides functional as well as anatomic information about the hepatobiliary system in individuals with a serum bilirubin level up to 8 mg/100 ml.     

Variable bile retention on cholescintigraphy after morphine administration

Intravenous morphine sulfate has been used in conjunction with cholescintigraphy. We studied the variations in the degree and duration of the effects of 2 mg morphine on biliary kinetics in patients with gallbladder nonvisualization and undertook a comparison with biliary kinetics in patients not given morphine. Of 24 morphine-augmented cholescintigrams that were obtained without additional injection of technetium-99m diisopropyl-iminodiacetic acid (DISIDA), 19 showed continued gallbladder nonvisualization. Time-activity curves (TACs) of the liver parenchyma and common bile/hepatic duct (CD) of the entire study (before and after morphine) were obtained. In two patients, the CD was not sufficiently visualized to define a region of interest. In 17 patients, the peak CD activity was observed between 14 and 47 min after injection of^99mTc-DISIDA. In these 17, the TAC of the CD was declining essentially in parallel with the TAC of the liver parenchyma at the end of the first hour before morphine. After morphine injection, CD activity slowly increased for a variable duration in nine patients, while it continued to decrease in eight. CD activity between 1 h and 2 h showed a continuously decreasing pattern in another group of 20 patients who did not receive morphine despite gallbladder nonvisualization at 1 h. In summary, no significant effect of 2 mg of intravenous morphine on biliary kinetics was detected scintigraphically in a considerable proportion of patients. Also, there was considerable variation in the duration of the effect of morphine, when such an effect was present. This observation may have significant clinical implications for morphine-augmented cholescintigraphy.     

Delayed biliary-to-bowel transit in cholescintigraphy after cholecystokinin treatment

The authors assessed the influence of cholecystokinin (CCK), administered before cholescintigraphy, on the biliary-to-bowel transit time (BBTT) of technetium-99m disofenin. Fourteen healthy volunteers underwent two separate cholescintigraphic studies with and without CCK treatment. BBTT was less than 1 hour in all 14 studies of subjects not treated with CCK. In 14 subjects treated with CCK, there was no tracer activity in the bowel up to 2 hours in seven (50%) (P = .006). Eighty-three cholescintigrams obtained in patients with suspected acute cholecystitis were also retrospectively analyzed. In 53 of 83 patients in whom the gallbladder was visualized within 1 hour, significantly delayed BBTT was found in 14 of 29 (48%) who received CCK, compared with the BBTT in one of 24 patients (4%) who did not receive CCK (P less than .001). In the 30 patients in whom the gallbladder was never visualized (n = 28) or was visualized after 1 hour (n = 2), BBTT was less than 30 minutes, regardless of whether patients were treated with CCK. Results show that CCK treatment causes significantly delayed BBTT in many cases, and this finding should not be interpreted as abnormal.     

Computed tomographic diagnosis of partial small bowel obstruction secondary to anterior peritoneal adhesions: relevance to laparoscopic cholecystectomy

A case is reported of partial small bowel obstruction secondary to anterior peritoneal adhesions which resulted in inadvertent trocar perforation of the small bowel at laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Careful assessment of computed tomographic examinations performed for acute abdominal complaints should include diagnosis of lower grades of small bowel obstruction from peritoneal adhesive disease. Laparoscopic surgeons should be apprised of peritoneal adhesions of bowel at usual sites of needle or trocar puncture.     

腹腔镜胆囊切除术后胆漏的鉴别诊断与治疗

目的:探讨腹腔镜胆囊切除术(LC)后胆漏的原因、鉴别诊断及治疗.方法:对51例LC术后胆漏的临床资料进行总结分析.结果:内镜乳头括约肌切开(EST)加腹腔置管引流11例、腹腔置管引流16例,1例死于并发急性左心衰,22例经引流4～24 d治愈,4例转开腹手术,共剖腹手术28例,均治愈.本组治愈50例,死亡1例,治愈率98%.结论:LC术后胆漏可通过影像学检查鉴别胆漏的原因,依据胆漏类型选择合理的治疗方式是治愈的关键.     

Sclerosing cholangitis: cholescintigraphy with Tc-99m-labeled DISIDA

Four patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) were examined with the hepatobiliary agent Tc-99m-labeled DISIDA (diisopropylphenylcarbamoyl iminodiacetic acid), and the results correlated with those of invasive cholangiography. Three of the four patients exhibited a typical pattern of multiple, persistent focal "hot spots" in the duct system, representing stasis within the segmental ductal dilatations (beading), also seen on cholangiography. Cholescintigraphy is superior to cholangiography in cases of suspected PSC where there is nonfilling of biliary radicals due to high-grade stenosis. The finding of delayed hepatic parenchymal clearance can allow estimation of the degree of obstruction of the various branches of the major bile ducts. Cholescintigraphy offers a noninvasive method of investigating patients with suspected sclerosing cholangitis, leading to earlier diagnosis. Confirmation with invasive cholangiographic procedures is recommended.