Detection Of A Liver Tumor In A Beagle Dog Using Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography

Wolff RK, Beierman WF, Mason MJ, et al.

Veterinary Radiology & Ultrasound 1988;29:179-183.

This case report describes the detection of a liver tumor in an 11year-old female Beagle dog using single photon-emission computed tomography (SPECT). A mass was palpated in the cranial abdomen during removal of recurrent mammary tumors. A conventional nuclear medicine liver scan, following injection of 99mTc-sulfur colloid, was equivocal. SPECT was then performed in a second procedure, using a simple system that rotated the dog before a gamma camera. Transverse plane images clearly showed a spheric space-occupying lesion, found at gross necropsy and confirmed histologically as a hepatoma. Discrete liver tumors may be detected more readily and their size determined more accurately using SPECT than with conventional nuclear medicine approaches.