[Hepatic clearance of 99mTc-GSA in cases of postoperative biliary atresia--a retrospective comparison with hepatic clearance of 99mTc-PMT].

There are a few reports about usefulness of 99mTc-GSA liver scintigraphy (GSA imaging) for the evaluation of postoperative state of biliary atresia. However, comparison of significance for the disease between GSA imaging and 99mTc-PMT hepatobiliary imaging have not been reported. Fifty-six GSA imagings for 41 postoperative biliary atresia patients were reviewed and their scintigraphic findings and the functional parameters were compared with those obtained from 99mTc-PMT hepatobiliary imaging. In quantitative analysis, although the hepatic clearance of both tracers calculated by graphical analysis (Patlak plot) were well correlated in most cases, a discrepancy was observed in several cases with jaundice. The authors conclude that the hepatic clearance of 99mTc-GSA is a more accurate index of the hepatic reserve than that of 99mTc-PMT which can be influenced by hyperbilirubinemia and that the combination of both examinations is helpful to evaluate development of liver injury in postoperative biliary atresia patients.