Small hypervascular hepatocellular carcinoma revealed by double arterial phase CT performed with single breath-hold scanning and automatic bolus tracking.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of double arterial phase CT for the detection of small hypervascular hepatocellular carcinomas, using an automated bolus-tracking technique to initiate the hepatic arterial phase CT.

Materials And Methods: Double arterial and late phase contrast-enhanced helical CT scans were obtained on 287 consecutive patients suspected of having hepatocellular carcinoma. These included 56 patients with 90 small (< or 3 cm) hepatocellular carcinomas and 50 patients with no hepatocellular carcinomas.