The nuclear medicine liver/spleen test is a non-invasive nuclear medicine imaging study used to assess a patient’s liver and spleen. In the liver/spleen scan, a radioactive tracer—classically technetium-99m sulfur-colloid—is injected into a patient’s veins to characterize the anatomy and functional status of the liver and spleen.
The liver-spleen test can indicate functional abnormalities of the liver and spleen based upon the amount and location of the radioactive tracer that is phagocytized by each organ’s phagocytic cells. The liver/spleen scan was utilized more frequently before the widespread adoption of CT, ultrasound, and MRI to assess the severity of liver damage in patients with cirrhosis, elevated liver enzymes, and to diagnose conditions such as focal nodular hyperplasia and assess splenic injury in trauma patients.
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