Clinical Importance of Incidentally Detected Hyperenhancing Liver Observations on Portal Venous Phase Computed Tomography in Patients Without Known Malignancy or Liver Disease

Abstract

Objective: The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of clinically important masses among incidental hyperenhancing liver observations on portal venous phase computed tomography (CT) in patients without known malignancy or liver disease.

Methods: Retrospective search of portal venous phase CTs was performed to identify hyperenhancing liver observations in patients without cancer or liver disease. Observations were assigned a morphology of homogeneous, hemangioma, or heterogeneous. The reference standard was pathology (n = 2), liver protocol CT/magnetic resonance imaging (n = 40), follow-up portal venous phase CT for 2 years or more (n = 81), or clinical follow-up for 5 years or more (n = 107).

Results: There were no clinically important masses among 83 observations with homogeneous morphology or 110 with hemangioma morphology. There were 2 clinically important masses (1 hepatocellular carcinoma and 1 hepatic adenoma) among 37 (5.4%) heterogeneous morphology observations.

Conclusions: Incidental hyperenhancing liver observations on portal venous phase CT with homogeneous or typical hemangioma morphology in patients without known cancer or liver disease are highly likely benign.