Background: Of the various pathologies that afflict the liver, liver masses form an important group. Multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) is the imaging modality most often used to evaluate focal liver lesions.
Objective: To evaluate the usefulness of Multidetector computed tomography in detection and characterization of focal liver lesions and to differentiate malignant from benign liver lesions.
Materials and methods: The study was conducted on 40 patients, over a period of one year, in the department of Radiodiagnosis, Rajah Muthiah Medical College and Hospital, Chidambaram. Patients (>20 yrs age) with hepato-biliary related clinical symptoms or incidentally detected liver masses with USG were included in the study. The MDCT findings were correlated with histopathological examinations in 33 out of 40 patients.
Results: Out of 40 patients, 21 patients (52.5%) had benign and 19 (47.5%) had malignant lesions. On later histopathological correlation, definitive diagnosis was made in 39 cases. Thus, in the present study, the diagnosing accuracy of MDCT in focal liver lesions evaluation was found to be 97.5%.
Conclusions: MDCT is a highly sensitive non invasive tool for detection and characterization of focal hepatic lesions.
