Combined diagnostic approach of hepatic scanning and celiac angiography in the investigation of liver disease.

greatly to the diagnosis and understanding of many hepatic disorders. Disease processes are rapidly bcalized in a simple and innocuous fashion. However, one of the major difficulties that has persisted, despite the rapid advances in instrumentation and radio pharmaceutical preparations, is the relative non specificity of the findings on a positive scan. Benign cysts, abscesses or tumors may all present as single or multiple filling defects. Pseudo--masses in cirrhosis (1---4) cannot be accurately differentiated from su perimposed hepatomas on the basis of scan alone. Excessive contrast enhancement generally accentu ates these pseudo-masses. The end result of a trau matic lesion may be seen on the scan as a defect that usually represents the hematoma (5) . How ever, the underlying damage causing the bleeding would remain a mystery without further investi gation. Celiac angiography has offered a definitive solu tion to most of these aforementioned problems and has in this fashion complemented and clarified the findings seen on the hepatic scan. In the past 2 years we have had the opportunity to perform both of these diagnostic procedures on a group of 60 pa tients with a variety of liver diseases in an attempt