16-Slice CT hepatic venography

Excerpt

The liver has a dual blood supply, but it has only one drainage outflow, i.e., the hepatic veins. Imaging studies about the hepatic veins, especially noninvasive imaging studies, are scarce [1]. With the increase of living-donor liver transplantation (LDLT), more attention is being paid to the vascular anatomy and its variants. In addition, more entities can occur in the hepatic vein, such as Budd-Chiari syndrome (BCS), stenosis of the hepatic veins, hepatic venous congestion, and invasion by malignant masses. Computed tomography (CT) has played an important role in the evaluation of liver diseases, especially with the advent of the multidetector CT (MDCT) scanner. Spatial resolution of the current 16-slice CT is nearly isotropic, and temporal resolution is about 250 ms, thus allowing performance of multiple phase scanning of the liver and different image reformations. However, reports about hepatic venography using a 16-slice CT scanner are few. This pictorial essay describes the technology and uses of hepatic venography with a 16-slice CT scanner. …