Specific diagnosis of hepatoma using 99mTc-HIDA and other radionuclides.

The difficulty of clinical and radiographical diagnosis of hepatoma is discussed. A case of hepatoma is reported. Both the primary tumor and distant metastases showed strong avidity for 99mTc-HIDA, which normally is concentrated by parenchymal cells of the liver. The potential of using 99mTc-HIDA for the noninvasive investigation of patients suspected of having hepatoma is discussed. The association between tumor avidity for 99mTc-HIDA and the bile-forming ability of tumor cells is of interest.