Development and validation of a comprehensive new hepatobiliary software. Part II: Segmental liver function.

Objective: This study was undertaken to develop comprehensive new hepatobiliary software to quantify segmental and lobar liver function and to obtain FDA approval.

Methods: Hepatobiliary software written on JAVA platform and loaded on to a PC accepts 99mTc-HIDA dicom image data transferred from a gamma camera. Liver boundary was determined by threshold-based auto edge detection and liver height at right midclavicular (RMCL) line.

Segmentation of the gallbladder: effect on bile entry and exit and its clinical relevance in a patient with abdominal pain.

Background: The effects of folds or septa on gallbladder filling and emptying are not known.

Methods: Gallbladder filling and emptying were measured in seven patients with two chambers (segmental) and compared with 10 subjects with a single chamber (control). Percent bile flow into gallbladder, and percent ejection fraction from the proximal and distal segments, and entire gallbladder were measured with cholecystokinin.

Constancy and variability of gallbladder ejection fraction: impact on diagnosis and therapy.

Unlabelled: The main objective of this study was to test the constancy and variability of gallbladder (GB) ejection fraction (EF) in long-term studies to (a) determine whether EF ever becomes normal once it is low, (b) determine how long it takes for the EF to become abnormal once it is found to be normal, (c) explore the cause of low EF, and (d) define objective parameters for biliary and nonbiliary abdominal pain.

Methods: Fifty-two patients (42 women, 10 men) who underwent quantitative cholescintigraphy twice (total studies, 104), over a mean period of 38.54 mo between studies, were chosen for retrospective analysis.

Comparison of fatty meal and intravenous cholecystokinin infusion for gallbladder ejection fraction.

Unlabelled: Gallbladder ejection fraction (GBEF) measured with a fatty meal (half-and-half milk) was compared with that measured with 2 equal sequential intravenous infusions of cholecystokinin (CCK-8) in a paired study of healthy subjects.

Methods: GBEF was measured by (99m)Tc-hepatic iminodiacetic acid cholescintigraphy in 13 healthy subjects. Each subject received 2 sequential doses of CCK-8 (3 ng/kg/min for 10 min) on day 1, followed by, on day 2, a 240-mL (8 oz) fatty meal (half-and-half milk) per 70 kg of body weight.