Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Artigo Acesso aberto Produção Nacional Revisado por pares

BIBTEX RIS

Diagnosis of hepatic steatosis by contrast-enhanced abdominal computed tomography

2013; Colégio Brasileiro de Radiologia e Diagnóstico por Imagem; Volume: 46; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1590/s0100-39842013000300005

1678-7099

Rodrigo da Fonseca Monjardim, Danilo Manuel Cerqueira Costa, Ricardo Francisco Tavares Romano, Priscila Silveira Salvadori, Jaime de Vargas Conde dos Santos, Augusto Castelli von Atzingen, David Carlos Shigueoka, Giuseppe D’Ippolito,

Radiation Dose and Imaging

Objective To evaluate the diagnostic capacity of abdominal computed tomography in the assessment of hepatic steatosis using the portal phase with a simplified calculation method as compared with the non-contrast-enhanced phase. Materials and Methods In the present study, 150 patients were retrospectively evaluated by means of non-contrast-enhanced and contrast-enhanced computed tomography. One hundred patients had hepatic steatosis and 50 were control subjects. For the diagnosis of hepatic steatosis in the portal phase, the authors considered a result of < 104 HU calculated by the formula [L - 0.3 × (0.75 × P + 0.25 × A)] / 0.7, where L, P and A represent the attenuation of the liver, of the main portal vein and abdominal aorta, respectively. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values were calculated, using non-contrast-enhanced computed tomography as the reference standard. Results The simplified calculation method with portal phase for the diagnosis of hepatic steatosis showed 100% sensitivity, 36% specificity, negative predictive value of 100% and positive predictive value of 75.8%. The rate of false positive results was 64%. False negative results were not observed. Conclusion The portal phase presents an excellent sensitivity in the diagnosis of hepatic steatosis, as compared with the non-contrast-enhanced phase of abdominal computed tomography. However, the method has low specificity.