GI imaging Flashcards
(115 cards)
How many liver segments are there?
What separates superior and inferior segments?
What forms the segmental borders in the axial plain?
Portal veins divide superior from inferior segments
Hepatic veins form the segmental borders in the axial plane
How to remember which segments are superior/inferior and left/right?
- Mnemonic for remembering the segments:
Superior segments, from left to right: 2, 4, 8, 7, 1 (caudate). 2 doubled is 4; 4 doubled is 8; 8 minus 1 is 7. Inferior segments, from left to right: 3, 4, 5, 6. - Segments 2, 3, and 4 are in the left lobe of the liver.
- Segments 5, 6, 7, 8 are in the right lobe of the liver.
Where does the caudate lobe of the liver drain and how does this affect it in cirrhosis?
Caudate lobe drains directly to the IVC, not into the hepatic veins
The caudate lobe hence is not affected in early cirrhosis since the direct drainage to the IVC spares the caudate from increased venous pressures due to portal hypertension. This leads to compensatory hypertrophy of the caudate lobe.
Direct venous drainage to the IVC allows the caudate lobe to bypass the increased hepatic venous pressures seen in Budd-Chiara syndrome. Compensatory hypertrophy of the caudate lobe may preserve liver function in these patients.
Liver USG, what is seen?
Hepatic steatosis causes increased sound attenuation, leading to poor visualization of deeper structures
What is seen and dx?
Treatment?
Primary haemochromatosis is the most common cause of iron overload, due to a genetic defect causing increased iron absorption through the GIT
Excess iron is deposited in hepatocytes (not the Kupffer cells that make up the intrahepatic reticuloendothelial system or RES), pancreas, myocardium, skin and joints. Excess iron in hepatocytes can cause cirrhosis.
Liver and pancreas are markedly T2 hypointense an show signal dropout on in phase images. The spleen and bone marrow are normal since the RES is not involved.
Treatment of primary hemochromatosis is phlebotomy
Which organs are effected in secondary haemochromatosis?
What are the causes of secondary haemochromatisis?
Secondary haemochromatosis is seen in diseases that cause haemosiderosis, where excess iron accumulates within the RES. This may be due to frequent blood transfusions or defective erythrocytosis. Treatment of haemosiderosis is with iron chelators.
RES has large capacity for iron and iron stored in RES is not harmful until it becomes in excess where just as in primary haemochromatosis, hepatocyte iron uptake may lead to cirrhosis.
Image: Secondary hemochromatosis: Multisequence MRI shows diffuse low T2 signal in the liver and spleen with associated signal loss on in-phase imaging compared to out-of-phase imaging, consistent with iron deposition from hemosiderosis in this patient with transfusion-dependent anemia.
What are the causes of hypoattenuating and hyperattenuating liver?
Hypoattenuating liver: fatty liver (hepatic steatosis), hepatic amyloid
Hyperattenuating liver: iron overload is the most common cause of hyperattenuating liver, medications (amiodarone, gold and methotrexate), wilson disease (copper overload), glycogen disease
What are the causs of liver cirrhosis?
Metabolic (alcohol, steatohepatitis, hemochromatosis, or Wilson disease)
Infectious (chornic hep B/C)
inflammatory (primary biliary cirrhosis or wilson disease)
What are the intrahepatic signs of cirrhosis?
What are early signs of cirrhosis?
Expansion of the periportal spaces
Atrophy of the medial segment of the left hepatic lobe in early cirrhosis causes increased fat anterior to the right main portal vein.
Enlargement of caudate lobe is a specific sign of cirrhosis. Specifically, a caudate to right lobe size ratio of >0.65 highly suggests cirrhosis.
The empty gallbladder fossa sign results when hepatic parenchyma surrounding the gallbladder is replaced with periportal fat.
What are the secondary manifestations of cirrhosis?
- Portal hypertension causes splenomegaly and formation of portosystemic collaterals/varices, including recanalization of the paraumbilical vein
Gamna-Gandy bodies are splenic microhemorrhages secondary to portal hypertension. These appear as tiny echogenic foci on US, tiny hypo or hypoattenuating on CT - Gallbladder wall thickening us due to hypoalbuminemia and resultant edema
- Micronodular cirrhosis <3mm (normally associated with alcoholism)
- Macronodular cirrhosis features nodules (>3mm) separated by wide scars and fibrous septae. Macronodular cirrhosis caused by fulminant viral hepatitis which does uniformly affect the liver.
What is the classical appearance of cirrhosis?
What is seen below?
What investigations can be done to test for cirrhosis?
Segmental atrophy and hypertrophy with nodular contour and parenchyma
Axial T2-weighted MR images show nodular contour of the liver with hypertrophy of the left lobe, atrophy of the right lobe, widened periportal space (yellow arrow), and right posterior hepatic notch sign (red arrow) in keeping with cirrhosis. This patient had a history of hepatitis C.
MR elastography: non invasive technique in which the patient wears a device resting over the right hepatic lobe which transmits mechanical waves
Sonoelastography: degree of fiibrosis on chronic liver disease
What is seen and expected results for dx?
Encapsulated mass that enhances on arterial phase and washes out on portal venous phase with an enhancing capsule.
HCC is often locally invasive and tends to invade into the portal and hepatic veins, IVC and bile ducts.
In contrast, cholangiocarcinoma and metastases to the liver area much less likely to do so.
What is the LI-RADS scoring system for HCC on CT and MRI?
Ranges from LR-1 (favoring benignity) to LR-5 (favoring malignancy)
Major criteria
* Arterial enhancement
* Non peripheral washout on portal venous and delayed phases
* Enhancing capsule/pseudocapsule seen in portal venous or delayed phases
* Threshold growth with diameter increase of >50% in <6 months
Ancillary findings favoring HCC including non enhancing capsule, nodule in nodule architecture, mossaic architecture, fat in mass, blood products in mass.
Treatmnet options: partial hepatectomy, orthotopic liver trnasplantation, radiation therapy, percutaneous ablation, and transcatheter embolization
Fibrolamellar carcinoma is a rare subtype of HCC that occurs in young patients without cirrhosis. Better prognosis than HCC. AFP is not elevated.
A fibrotic central scar is classic, which is hypointense on T1 and T2W MRI. Does not have capsule.
What is the appearance of hepatic metastases, which phase of imaging is best used to visualize?
Appearance on ultrasound?
Metastases supplied by branches of the hepatic artery. Most metastases are hypovascular and best appreciated on portal venous phase.
On MRI, metastatic lesions tend to be hypointense on T1W and hyperintense on T2W.
Ultrasound: hypoechoic rim producing a target sign.
What are hypovascular and hypervascular hepatic metastases?
Hypovascular: breast, pancreas, lung, lymphoma
Hypervascular: melanoma, renal cell carcinoma, carcinoid/choriocarcinoma, thyroid
What are calcified and cystic hepatic metastases?
Calcified: mucinous cancers (colon, gastric, ovarian), osteosarcoma, treated lymphoma
Cystic: ovarian cystadenocarcinoma, GI sarcoma
What is dx?
DDx?
Dx: epithelioid hemangioendothlioma is a rare vascular malignancy that causes multiple spherical subscapular masses. It is a cause of capsular retraction.
ddx:
* Mass forming cholangiocarcinoma
* Fibrolamellar HCC
* Epithelioid hemangioendothlioma
* Pseudocirrhosis (Macronodular liver contour with capsular retraction due to treated metastases)
* Confluent hepatic fibrosis
Hemangioma: Dynamic contrast-enhanced T1-weighted MRI (early arterial top left image to delayed bottom left image) shows a segment 8 lesion (yellow arrows) demonstrating peripheral discontinuous nodular enhancement. There is progressively increasing centripetal enhancement towards the center of the lesion on delayed images. The signal intensity of the peripheral enhancement is similar to that of the aorta.
The hemangioma is hyperintense on the T2-weighted image (bottom right image).
IMPORTANT: hepatic cavernous haemangioma is the most common benign hepatic neoplasm. It is composed or disorganized endothelial cell lined pockets of blood vessels, supplied by a peripheral branch of the hepatic artery
What is seen and dx?
What other nuclear imaging used to confirm?
- Hepatic adenoma is a benign hepatic neoplasm containing hepatocytes, scattered Kupffer cells, and no bile ducts.
The absence of bile ducts makes a nuclear medicine HIDA scan a useful test to distinguish between focal nodular hyperplasia (which contains bile ducts and would be positive on HIDA) verses a hepatic adenoma, which does not contain bile ducts and will show a paucity of uptake on HIDA.
What are the enhancement patterns of common hepatic masses (HCC, FNH, hepatic adenoma, hypervascular metastasis, non-hypervascular metastasis)