Evaluation of the liver and spleen in Hodgkin's disease: I. The value of hepatic scintigraphy

Abstract

Forty-nine patients with Hodgkin's disease were studied. Exploratory laparotomy including needle and wedge liver biopsies were performed for staging purposes, and the pathologic condition of the liver was compared with the preoperative liver scans. In this group of patients, focal filling defects on the liver scintigraph were always associated with hepatic Hodgkin's disease, although this abnormality on the scintigraph occurred infrequently. A nonuniform uptake of radioactivity in the liver was the most common sign of liver disease, but this was not specific for Hodgkin's disease and was often associated with liver granulomas. Hodgkin's disease was never found in the liver biopsy specimens of the patients in this series in whom the liver scintigraph was normal. Laparotomy with liver biopsy remains the most specific means for staging abdominal Hodgkin's disease.