Spectral analysis applied to hepatobiliary dynamic scintigraphy with Tc-99(m)-N-pyridoxyl-5-methyltryptophan

This study was performed to evaluate the application of spectral analysis (SA) to hepatobiliary dynamic scintigraphy with Tc-99(m)-N-pyridoxyl-5-methyltryptophan (Tc-99(m)-PMT) in 82 patients with a wide range of liver function, and to compare it with compartment analysis (CA) and deconvolution analysis (DA). The rate of uptake of PMT by the liver from the blood (k(1)) obtained by SA (y, min(-1)) agreed well with the k(1) value obtained using CA (x, min(-1)) (y = 1.079x + 0.000, r = 0.993, standard error of the estimate (S.E.E.) = 0.042 min(-1)). The mean residence time (MRT) of PMT in the liver obtained by SA (y, min) also agreed well with the MRT value obtained by DA (x, min) (y = 1.036x - 0.759, r = 0.967 S.E.E. = 1.014 min) and that obtained by CA (x, min) (y = 0.859x + 1.006, r = 0.931, S.E.E. 1.428 min). The fraction of the measured blood activity superimposed on the true liver activity (f) obtained by SA (y) correlated well with the f value obtained by CA (x) (y = 1.168x - 0.004, r = 0.924, S.E.E. = 0.043). We conclude that the application of SA to hepatobiliary dynamic scintigraphy with PMT appears to be useful in evaluating the functional status of the liver, since it facilitates the interpretation of the kinetic behaviour of PMT in the liver and allows us to extract quantitative parameters corresponding to those obtained by CA or DA.