Comparison between the values of the hepatic uptake rate obtained by 2 methods, using hepatobiliary scintigraphy in patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis.

UNLABELLED

(99m)Tc-mebrofenin hepatobiliary scintigraphy has been introduced for the noninvasive assessment of liver function in the clinical setting and in experimental research.

METHODS

During a period of 2 y, 15 patients with fatty livers diagnosed as having nonalcoholic steatohepatitis underwent hepatobiliary scintigraphy using the radiopharmaceutical agent (99m)Tc-labeled mebrofenin. After intravenous administration of 85 MBq of (99m)Tc-mebrofenin, a dynamic image was acquired with the liver and heart in the field of view. In this study, a comparison between the values of hepatic uptake rate obtained by applying 2 methods in patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis-multiple-time graphical analysis (Gjedde-Patlak plot) and the differentiation between different regions of interest using hepatobiliary scintigraphy-was made.

RESULTS

The values of the uptake rate reveal that uptake obtained by applying the second method are significantly higher than that obtained by applying the first one (P = 0.001). A strong positive association (n = 15; r = 0.92; R(2) = 0.84) was found between these measurements. From a Bland-Altman statistical test that was performed on the results we also found that 87% of the cases (13/15) were within 1.96 SD.

CONCLUSION

The Gjedde-Patlak analysis method can be considered as an alternative technique to find and calculate the hepatic uptake rate.