[Preliminary report on the usefulness of 123I-IMP scintigraphy in distant metastases from hepatocellular carcinoma: except for bone and lung metastases].

N-isopropyl-p-[123I] Iodoamphetamine (IMP) scintigraphy was performed in 10 lesions of metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma. Five of 10 lesions (50%) were detected with planar images, which was superior to the 2 of 8 lesions (25%) detected with 67Ga-citrate (Ga) scintigraphy. The positive ratio was increased to 83% (5/6) with SPECT. Thus our findings suggested that IMP could compensate for Ga scintigraphy in detecting distant metastases of hepatocellular carcinoma.