Hepatobiliary scintigraphy with SPECT in infancy

Abstract

UNLABELLED: Hepatobiliary scintigraphy (HBS) is an important investigation for the diagnosis of biliary atresia (BA) and its differentiation from causes of conjugated hyperbilirubinemia that do not require surgical intervention. Delayed imaging at 24 hours and phenobarbitone augmentation for 5 days has been required to achieve high sensitivity and specificity with current techniques. This study explores whether adding single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) performs as well as existing methods without requiring delayed 24-hour imaging and whether the phenobarbitone premedication is necessary in all cases. METHODS: A retrospective analysis of 105 HBS studies on 94 patients was perf..