CT & MRI Manifestation of Mal ignant Liver Tumor in Childhood : A Review of 45 Cases

Objective 　Our aim was to investigate the imaging manifestation of malignant liver tumor with CT & MRI. Methods 　Ret rospectively review 45 cases of surgically and pathologically confirmed malignant liver tumor. Forty-five patient s (24boys, 21girls), range 37 days to 14 years, mean age 2. 3 years.Uncont rast and cont rast CT was undertaken in 28 patient s and MRI was undertaken in 17 patients. Results 　All forty-five patient s comprised Hepatoblastoma ( n = 31), Hepatocellular Carcinoma ( n = 4), Undifferentiated(embryonal) sarcoma ( n = 3), Hepatobiliary rhabdomyosarcoma, ( n = 3), lymphoma ( n = 2) and angiosarcoma ( n = 2) . Twenty-five tumors involved the right lobe, 8 tumors involved the left lobe, and 12 both liver lobes. Thirty-seven patient s had a solitary hepatic mass, six of them manifested as multiple nodules in one or both liver lobes. Calcified foci were found in 17 cases. Eighteen patients had a pseudocapsule. The tumor mass usually exhibited inhomogeneous density and heterogeneous enhancement and enhances less than normal liver parenchyma (except angiosarcoma ) . Conclusion 　CT & MRI can precisely delineate the location, size, extent of involvement, imaging characteristics and metastases of liver tumor thus provide information necessary to the clinical staging, therapy planning and prognosis of the tumors.