Complementary Role of Reticuloendothelial and Hepatobiliary Imaging Agents in the Assessment of Liver Disease

Reticuloendothelial function of the hepatic microvasculature

“…Scintigraphy, utilizing radiotracers targeted to Kupffer cells (e.g., technetium‐99 m sulfur colloid or 125 I‐labeled microaggregated albumin), has been used to generate a two‐dimensional image of hepatic phagocytic function 39. More recently, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with superparamgnetic iron oxide particles has been employed to enhance the physiologic data supplied by uptake assays with the improved anatomic resolution provided by MRI 40,41. Extrapolation from these uptake studies to actual RES capacity is complicated by the fact that the targets differ dramatically in terms of size and antigenic characteristics, both of which have been shown to affect the rate of phagocytosis.…”

Diagnostic Imaging of the Hepatobiliary System in Infants and Children

“…The test , then, is useful in evaluating function in a general way, but again, a histologic diagno sis is not po ssible . Advocates of th e IDA agents have recently stressed th e use of th ese Tc-99m-Iabeled compounds as use ful for both functional and imaging test s (32).…”