Diagnosis of alcoholic cirrhosis with the right-to-left hepatic lobe ratio: concise communication.

Since scans of cirrhotic livers commonly show a reduction in size and colloid uptake of the right lobe, a quantitative measure of uptake was made using a minicomputer to determine total counts in regions of interest defined over each lobe. Right-to-left ratios were then compared in 103 patients. For normal patients the mean ratio +/- 1 s.d. was 2.85 +/- 0.65, and the mean for patients with known cirrhosis was 1.08 +/- 0.33. Patients with other liver diseases had ratios similar to the normal group. The normal range of the right-to-left lobe ratio was 1.55-4.15. The sensitivity of the ratio for alcoholic cirrhosis was 85.7% and the specificity was 100% in this patient population. The right-to-left lobe ratio was more sensitive and specific for alcoholic cirrhosis than any other criterion tested. An hypothesis is described to explain these results.