Value of tomographic section views in identifying liver abnormalities by scintigraphy.

A previously published prospective trial to assess the value of tomographic transverse section images provided by the Aberdeen Section Scanner has been repeated using gamma camera images. Reports for 192 patients were analysed and compared with the final independent clinical diagnosis. The results were also compared with those of the previous investigation. When the latest results were plotted in the form of receiver operating characteristic curves, they showed some improvement for the 'with tomography' reports. Furthermore, introduction of a diagnostic classification rating showed that for cases with a high level of independent diagnostic evidence that the liver was abnormal, reporting confidence was higher with tomography. However, a simplified analysis of abnormality ratings suggested that the differences were not statistically significant for the numbers of patients examined.