Interactive Transcript
0:02
Hello and welcome to Noon Conferences hosted by MRI Online.
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In response to changes happening around the world
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right now and the shutting down of in-person
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events, we have decided to provide free daily
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noon conferences to all radiologists worldwide.
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Today, we are joined by Dr. Bhargava.
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Dr. Bhargava is a professor of radiology at the
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University of Washington in Seattle, Washington.
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His current work is focused on data analytics, radiology
0:29
operations, organizational psychology, and leadership.
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A reminder that there will be a Q&A
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session at the end of the lecture.
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So please use the Q&A feature to ask your questions,
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and we will get to as many as we can before our time is up.
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That being said, thank you all for joining us today.
0:46
Dr. Bhargava, I'll let you take it from here.
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Good morning.
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It's good morning here in Seattle.
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I know people from around the world have joined in.
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Thank you for inviting me, Dr. Collins.
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I saw you as one of the attendees.
1:00
So, in the next hour, we will talk about imaging
1:04
complications of liver transplantation and sort of an
1:07
allied topic, which is how to help your surgeons
1:11
by providing relevant information when
1:15
a surgical liver resection is being planned.
1:17
I will try to simplify these topics.
1:20
Liver transplantation can seem like a daunting topic.
1:24
If the institution you work with
1:27
doesn't do a lot of liver transplants, or if somebody
1:31
really hasn't simplified this for you, it looks daunting,
1:33
but it's actually very algorithmic.
1:36
We'll go through an algorithm of how to manage liver
1:38
transplant complications at the end of this talk.
1:42
All right.
1:42
So, with that, let's begin.
1:44
Meanwhile, you can type in your questions
1:47
in the Q&A; I'll take them at the very end.
1:50
So, what are we going to do in the next
1:53
30 minutes or so for liver transplantation?
1:56
I'm going to focus on orthotopic liver transplantation.
1:59
First, we should know what the normal
2:00
postoperative imaging appearances are.
2:03
Then we'll talk about complications, imaging
2:06
findings of complications, and then understand
2:09
how to integrate the role of imaging in the
2:12
management of liver transplantation complications.
2:17
So as background, uh, liver transplantation is,
2:20
uh, the treatment of choice for end-stage
2:23
acute versus chronic, um, liver disease.
2:26
As time has gone on, um, the graft survival
2:30
and patient survival rates have improved.
2:33
Uh, and they've improved mainly because of improved
2:35
surgical techniques, better immunosuppression, and
2:38
frankly, we have gotten better at imaging in the early
2:41
diagnosis and treatment of, um, transplant complications.
2:45
Um, surgical technique.
2:47
Um, so there's multiple anastomoses.
2:52
Suffice to know that most of the anastomoses are end-to-end.
2:58
But when you have a CBD that's too small,
3:02
diseased or even absent, then you're left with
3:05
no choice but to do a choledochal jejunostomy.
3:08
Now, as you can imagine, if instead of doing an end
3:11
to end donor recipient CBD anastomosis, you just
3:15
stick a loop of jejunum up to the hepatic hilum,
3:21
you have all the jejunal contents basically bathing the
3:25
bile ducts, and that leads to increased chances of
3:28
infection, bleeding, um, and even anastomotic dehiscence.
3:34
So, a couple of interesting things
3:36
about, um, arterial anastomoses.
3:38
Now, the important thing to understand is that, um, the,
3:42
the, the caliber of the arteries that are anastomosed,
3:46
donor versus recipient, is almost never the same.
3:50
So you have to have, um, a technique in
3:54
which how you're going to anastomose two
3:56
arteries that are of different caliber.
3:58
So there's different ways of doing this.
4:01
Um, and there's some fancy names right there,
4:03
but, uh, suffice to note that, uh, what the
4:07
names are and the techniques are not as much
4:10
as important as, as the imaging appearance.
4:13
So if you look at this image, um, the
4:16
surgical clip, which is that bright dot.
4:18
That tips you to that this is the
4:20
site of the arterial anastomosis.
4:22
Now if you look at the arterial
4:24
anastomosis, it looks bulbous.
4:27
And this is the normal appearance of the fish
4:30
mouth anastomosis, so it's created into this
4:33
wide, wide, wider shape at least on one side.
4:37
Um, and then it's anastomosed and the,
4:39
and the, and the important thing is to
4:40
not confuse this with a pseudoaneurysm.
4:43
I will show a good example of
4:44
pseudoaneurysm later on in the talk.
4:46
And the reason this is important is that
4:48
a fish mouth anastomotic appearance is
4:51
normal; nothing needs to be done about it.
4:54
A pseudoaneurysm, on the other hand,
4:57
when they form, they produce no symptoms.
4:59
So, um, again, symptomatically you can
5:03
distinguish between the two, but a pseudo
5:05
aneurysm has a weak wall and it can rupture.
5:08
And if, and if a pseudoaneurysm ruptures,
5:11
uh, the bleeding can be pretty bad.
5:13
And the patient is at risk of dying.
5:15
So if you see a pseudoaneurysm,
5:18
you have to treat it.
5:19
But again, we don't have to treat a fish mouth
5:21
anastomosis, which is what this is, right?
5:24
So don't call it a pseudoaneurysm.
5:26
This is classic for fish mouth.
5:27
If you've seen one, you've seen them all.
5:29
Um, you will occasionally come, come, uh, come
5:32
across people who read this as pseudoaneurysms
5:35
because they haven't seen this appearance before.
5:42
So, in terms of surgical technique, most of the anastomoses
5:46
that I was describing to you are end-to-end anastomoses.
5:50
A short segment portal vein thrombosis
5:53
is not an absolute contraindication.
5:56
You can always do a jump graft.
5:58
Um, the, the biggest, um, impact of IVC, um, surgical
6:05
technique innovation was in the IVC anastomosis.
6:08
So in the past they used to do an end-to-end anastomosis.
6:12
So what they used to do is they used to go deep inside.
6:15
the, the recipient, uh, cut, um,
6:19
a portion of the IVC, removed the liver out.
6:21
Now, as you can imagine, the, uh, IVC was pretty deep.
6:25
It was hard for the surgeon to get in.
6:28
There was a lot of bleeding and there were two anastomoses.
6:31
Now, what the surgeons, uh, figured out
6:33
was that they don't really have to cut at
6:35
these two points and transpose the liver.
6:38
What they can do is the piggyback technique.
6:40
So in this piggyback technique, what you
6:42
do is you just have one anastomosis.
6:45
You leave the native IVC in there.
6:48
You just stick the, the, the
6:50
recipient IVC on top of each other.
6:52
Now what that does is that it
6:54
decreases the risk of bleeding.
6:57
All surgical complications happen at the anastomosis.
7:00
This is just a buzz, you know, sort of a,
7:03
some buzzwords that you just have to remember.
7:05
Uh, you know, in, in any post-surgical anatomy, mostly
7:09
complications happen at the surgical anastomosis.
7:11
So you just go straight to the,
7:13
uh, look up your operative report,
7:15
go straight to the anastomotic sites, and that
7:18
is where you'll have, um, the complications.
7:21
So, in the piggyback technique,
7:22
they just put it on top of each other.
7:24
It actually shortens the surgery by up to an
7:27
hour, so everybody's happy it's a shorter surgery.
7:30
You decrease the number of anastomoses by one,
7:33
which means a 50 percent reduction in the anastomotic
7:35
sites in the IVC, and there's decreased bleeding.
7:39
So, it's a win-win everywhere.
7:41
Now, the way it works is that the inferior end
7:43
of the IVC is kind of tied off, so a little
7:46
bit of thrombus can actually form in there,
7:49
and this is how it looks in the operating room.
7:51
I got this from one of our transplant surgeons.
7:54
This is a liver being harvested.
7:56
Um, and this is how it looks like.
7:59
This is the recipient IVC.
8:01
This is the donor IVC.
8:02
They're just pasted on top of each other.
8:04
So when you look at it at the right
8:06
image, it looks like there's two IVCs.
8:10
So what can we do on imaging?
8:11
So we have lots of imaging modalities right now.
8:14
The vast majority of transplant imaging is
8:18
actually done, um, on ultrasound because
8:21
ultrasound is a screening modality.
8:23
Um, it's cheap, it's, it's easily
8:26
available, and it's a screening test.
8:28
So you, you kind of do the ultrasound and
8:31
you figure out where the problem is, and then
8:34
you can decide to do CT or MR, rarely PET.
8:38
Um, and that, so it's a good place
8:40
to start, uh, with ultrasound.
8:42
Some physics, I always like to have at least one or
8:45
two, um, things about physics in every lecture.
8:49
Um, so you want to make sure that your settings are
8:51
right, and these are the settings that you need to employ
8:55
with ultrasound.
8:57
With CT, you want to make sure that you have
8:59
thin sections in case you need to look at
9:02
the arteries a little bit more carefully.
9:04
A little bit thicker sections for
9:05
portal venous phase is just fine.
9:08
And you want to look at the vasculature.
9:10
You want to look at the bile ducts.
9:12
You want to look at the liver parenchyma, and you want to
9:14
look, um, you know, elsewhere around the liver, especially
9:18
so if you actually work in a transplant center, like
9:22
I do, um, you'll see a lot of requests come through,
9:26
uh, with the history being given: rule out rejection.
9:29
Well, I can't rule in or rule
9:31
out rejection based on imaging.
9:33
That's the first thing we have to understand.
9:35
Um, they're writing that in the history
9:38
because that's what they're worried about.
9:40
Now, um, rejection, as you,
9:43
as you know, can be acute or chronic.
9:45
It can be very nonspecific, both
9:47
clinically and with lab findings.
9:49
And we can't really exclude, um, rejection on imaging.
9:53
So what are we, why are we doing this study?
9:55
Well, we're doing this study mainly because
9:57
if we can see if there's any other causes
9:59
that might explain the lab findings.
10:02
Are there other findings that might explain
10:04
why the liver transplant is not doing well?
10:07
So it's actually a study of exclusion in some way.
10:09
If you want to make a diagnosis of, uh, of, uh,
10:13
of rejection, you actually need to do a biopsy.
10:18
So moving on to vascular complications.
10:21
Um, these are the big ones, um, because these are,
10:24
um, um, the complications that actually lead to the
10:28
death of the transplant, and the hepatic
10:31
artery complications are way more important than the
10:34
portal venous and the hepatic vein complications.
10:36
So let's recap what we've learned so far.
10:39
So, um, anatomy, you have to know your surgical technique,
10:43
you have to know your fish mouth anastomosis,
10:46
you should know what the piggyback anastomosis looks like.
10:48
And you have to know that you can't diagnose
10:51
rejection on imaging; you can suspect it.
10:54
But at the end of the day, you'll have to do a biopsy.
10:57
And if there's one thing you need to know
11:00
about liver transplant complications,
11:03
those are the hepatic artery complications.
11:06
So I have this little joke that when I present this lecture
11:10
to, um, our residents in the pre-COVID times where I
11:14
would go into the lecture hall, they would be, they would
11:16
be sitting, and I would start talking from as soon
11:19
as I would enter the hall, like, what is the one thing
11:22
we need to know about liver transplant complications?
11:25
And then for those people who had heard this lecture
11:27
before, they would say hepatic artery complications, right?
11:30
So, um, and then we would laugh over it
11:32
because I haven't even plugged in my USB.
11:35
And the idea about cracking that joke is I want our
11:38
residents to know that when they're alone at night, or if
11:41
they've not seen a liver transplant in a while, um, they're
11:45
not going to hurt a patient at night if they can only
11:50
look at the hepatic artery and make sure it's doing okay.
11:54
If you're alone, you have no help, um, it's in the
11:57
middle of the night, and you make sure the hepatic artery
11:59
is okay, you've nailed the case because everything
12:02
else can be taken care of, uh, in a couple of hours
12:06
when maybe somebody with more experience shows up.
12:09
Now to, to look for hepatic artery complications,
12:13
um, the most important thing is to know your normal.
12:16
So if you can just say all these things are normal, normal,
12:20
normal, If you have a normal job, then that's like 80% to 90%
12:23
of the job, and when it's abnormal, you, you need
12:27
to know whether this is a vessel in transition because it's,
12:33
it's just had a new transplant and will it normalize over
12:36
time, or is this an emergency right so step number one.
12:40
you know, up to, you know, a high percentage,
12:43
the vast majority will have a normal flow.
12:46
So what is a normal flow in the hepatic artery?
12:49
So any artery in the body, and this
12:52
is like a basic Doppler principle.
12:54
So any, any important organ has to have
12:58
continuous flow throughout the cardiac cycle.
13:01
Now, you cannot have even for, you know,
13:03
a millisecond, um, or a portion of a millisecond,
13:07
no flow in any critical organ in the body.
13:09
So, um, when you look at the hepatic artery, there
13:12
is continuous flow throughout the cardiac cycle.
13:14
That's very important.
13:16
Um, there should be a very brisk upstroke.
13:19
So from point number two to point number one, that
13:22
line is not completely vertical, but it's almost
13:25
vertical, and that's the normal hepatic artery.
13:28
Just to give you an idea of how steep
13:30
that slope is, it's almost vertical.
13:33
It takes 0.08 seconds for the flow to reach peak systolic velocity.
13:39
So it's nearly vertical.
13:41
And if somebody asks you what's the RI, the RI
13:44
value of something and you just blurt out 0.5 to 0.8,
13:47
that's actually true for most vessels.
13:50
So there's nothing, uh, abnormal, uh,
13:53
or something else to remember about the RI values, 0.5 to 0.8.
13:58
Now, if your RI values are not in
14:00
this range, having a higher than
14:04
0.8 RI value is actually better than having a slightly
14:08
lower RI value because the lower RI value over time
14:12
means that that transplant will have more complications.
14:15
So let's talk about what goes wrong in the hepatic artery
14:18
now that we know what the normal hepatic artery looks like.
14:22
So, um, this paper listed at the bottom, and there's
14:26
one other with the immediate post-operative
14:29
complications in liver transplant and radiographics.
14:33
They're definitely worth going through the images
14:36
that they show, and that'll show you that in the
14:38
first 72 hours, the recipient's body has
14:42
been used to having a cirrhotic liver for a long time.
14:46
And suddenly now there is a normal
14:48
liver of a young patient, right?
14:50
Uh, that's been stuck on the IVC.
14:53
Uh, it takes a while for the recipient's body
14:56
to actually accommodate that new healthy liver.
15:00
So what happens is that anytime there's an
15:03
astomosis, there's edema, and that can lead to a kink.
15:07
Um, and those will resolve, uh, most of these findings will
15:11
resolve over 72 hours, um, and again, higher, uh, RI values,
15:16
uh, very common in the immediate post-operative setting.
15:19
So, uh, unless you have, uh, no flow or
15:23
severe stenosis in the hepatic artery,
15:26
um, most of the other findings that you'll
15:29
see will actually resolve over 72 hours.
15:32
And these are followed very closely.
15:34
Uh, all the transplant surgeons are familiar with it.
15:36
Um, and so, uh, but again, if you have a new
15:41
liver transplant and you see, you know, RI values of
15:44
0.9, don't just say, "Oh, this is acute rejection."
15:47
Remember we can't really, um,
15:49
diagnose rejection on imaging alone.
15:52
So this is a good example, you know, immediate
15:56
post-operative, um, there's, you know, RI
15:59
value of one, there's, uh, you know, a little flow,
16:04
and then as soon as you wait, uh, a couple of days,
16:07
and this is a scan like six months later, but this resolved
16:10
within 72 hours showing a normal, uh, spectral waveform.
16:15
Now, uh, hepatic artery stenosis, what does that look like?
16:19
Um, so, again, this is a, this is a classic, this
16:23
is an ultrasound classic, Tardus Parvus waveform.
16:26
So where do you see Tardus Parvus waveform?
16:28
Um, after the anastomosis, after the stenosis.
16:34
So when you have a hemodynamically significant stenosis,
16:39
beyond that, you see this Tardus Parvus waveform.
16:42
What is a Tardus Parvus waveform?
16:44
It's got a very slow systolic upstroke.
16:46
Now notice that almost straight line
16:49
upstroke that I was talking about.
16:50
Now how slow, uh, that slope has become.
16:53
That arrowhead that you can see, it's a, it's a very,
16:56
uh, shallow slope compared to how steep it should be.
16:59
And the velocities are pretty low.
17:01
So once you see a Tardus Parvus waveform, uh, that tells
17:05
you that there is a hemodynamically significant stenosis.
17:09
Proximal to it, right?
17:11
So you can find a vessel if it, if a vessel shows normal
17:13
waveform and at one point it shows Tardus Parvus waveform,
17:17
you know that the stenosis is somewhere in the middle.
17:21
So this is how it kind of looks on an angiogram.
17:24
Um, so the surgeons actually, um, will have a pretty
17:29
good idea of, uh, whether they are going to expect
17:32
this or not in the immediate post-operative setting.
17:36
And the reason is because they know how, um,
17:39
how, how much of a mismatch they had when
17:41
they anastomosed, uh, the hepatic arteries.
17:43
They are aware of, um, you know, if the
17:47
anastomotic suture line wasn't great or whatever.
17:50
So they're aware of that.
17:51
So then they have to decide what are they going to do.
17:53
In the vast majority of cases, when you have a
17:56
stenosis, you can get by with an angioplasty or stent.
17:59
Um, and if there's a thrombus, you can lyse it,
18:02
but occasionally, you may need to do a surgical revision.
18:06
Now this is, uh, this again, this is a good
18:09
example of, um, hepatic artery stenosis.
18:13
Now, um, if you get something like this, um,
18:20
the surgeon decides whether it'll be a CTA that's done
18:24
next or a catheter angiogram that's done next.
18:27
So leave it up to the surgeon to decide
18:30
what modality should be done next.
18:32
Now, so, this is something really interesting
18:35
that I actually learned from my IR colleagues.
18:38
So, you can have a Tardus Parvus waveform but
18:41
that always doesn't mean that somebody needs
18:43
to jump in and do, do, do a recanalization.
18:48
And this...
18:50
So in the chronic stage, uh, you can have a Tardus Parvus
18:54
waveform, but look at the, the arrows show like those
18:56
wispy collaterals that you almost never see on a CTA.
19:00
I've never seen these, um, and you
19:03
see them really well on an angiogram.
19:05
So if, if the vessel is collateralized and there's, there's
19:09
good caliber distally, you don't need to do anything.
19:12
There may be Tardus Parvus waveform, um,
19:14
but, but, you know, there's been enough
19:16
compensation that you can just watch them.
19:18
So we have a couple of patients in our
19:19
system who have this kind of appearance.
19:22
They consistently, when they come for their
19:24
annual checkups, they have Tardus Parvus
19:26
waveform, but they're doing just fine.
19:27
So, Hepatic Artery Thrombosis.
19:30
Now, this is what, on call, this is the
19:33
one case that if you, if you mess up, uh,
19:36
everybody is going to be very unhappy with you.
19:40
When people roll out in the morning,
19:41
if you're taking call all by yourself.
19:44
And so hepatic artery thrombosis,
19:46
how do you, how do you diagnose it?
19:47
So if you, if you go to the porta hepatis and
19:50
you see the portal vein and anterior to the portal
19:52
vein, you do not see your hepatic artery.
19:56
You get no signal from the hepatic artery.
19:59
You've got to get really, really speedy about
20:04
calling people and telling, telling your transplant
20:07
surgeons, "I don't see the hepatic artery."
20:09
And, uh, you know, sometimes these patients
20:11
have bandages and you can't see it because, you
20:13
know, it's just a hard window that can happen.
20:16
Um, but, but if you don't see it, you've got to panic and
20:20
you've got to, you know, call your transplant surgeons
20:22
and then they have to decide whether they're going to
20:24
take the patient back to the operating room,
20:27
or if they want to get an angiogram done.
20:29
Now, an ultrasound, uh, doesn't diagnose this condition.
20:33
Um, it, it creates a very high suspicion for this
20:37
condition, and this is how it looks on a CTA.
20:39
You see a stump of a hepatic artery, and nothing distally.
20:43
So those two arrowheads show
20:44
the stump of the hepatic artery.
20:46
And this is hepatic artery thrombosis.
20:48
There's no vasculature internally.
20:50
So, uh, you suspect it on ultrasound, you
20:54
confirm it on any sort of an angiogram,
20:56
whether it be CTA, catheter angiogram.
20:59
And on occasions, the surgeons will take the
21:00
patient back to the operating room because their
21:02
suspicion is so high and they don't want to wait.
21:05
Now, the reason this is such an important diagnosis to make
21:08
is that because if you don't make this diagnosis
21:11
or make a delayed diagnosis, it can lead to, um,
21:14
uh, infarction of the, uh, of the transplant.
21:17
Now, in a native liver, we all know from our, uh, study
21:21
of anatomy that, you know, in a native liver, most of
21:25
the blood supply to the liver is from the portal vein.
21:29
Uh, 80 percent or so is from the portal vein.
21:31
A very small percentage is from the hepatic artery.
21:34
In a transplant liver, it's the reverse.
21:37
Um, the only source of blood supply to the bile
21:40
ducts in a transplant liver is from a hepatic artery.
21:43
So, if the hepatic artery is thrombosed, you get biliary
21:47
ischemia and infarction, and the transplant is dead.
21:50
Um, so that's why this is really, really important, right?
21:54
So, sometimes you can get false positives, and
21:56
sometimes you can get false negatives, but this
21:58
is not a condition that you would take lightly.
22:01
Um, it's okay to do, uh, an angiogram and
22:04
then make sure that, okay, you see the artery.
22:06
I didn't see it on option.
22:07
That's, that's cool.
22:08
That's fine.
22:09
Uh, but you can't, but you can't sit on it.
22:11
This is a case where, uh, a hepatic
22:14
artery thrombosis was treated.
22:16
So, again, you see a stump of a hepatic artery; they
22:19
were able to, uh, lyse the thrombus and open it.
22:22
Um, if they are unable to open it, um, there
22:25
may be another transplant that may be needed.
22:28
This is a pediatric, uh, liver transplant.
22:32
Uh, the thing that's striking here is that there's a T-tube.
22:35
This was left in there so they could inject
22:37
the bile ducts because they had, um, very high
22:40
concern for problems happening in the bile ducts.
22:43
And you can see what's going on in the bile ducts.
22:45
Those are wispy, irregular bile ducts throughout.
22:48
And this is, um, basically ischemia in the bile ducts.
22:52
I'll show you the, the CT scan.
22:54
This is the CT scan.
22:55
So, there's all these peripheral, uh, liver infarcts.
22:59
Uh, there's not much, uh, these are the infarcts
23:02
and, uh, this is more centrally the infarct
23:05
and, uh, there's a very, very tiny stump
23:09
of the hepatic artery that's seen on the image on the right.
23:13
So, you don't want this to happen.
23:15
You want to pick, you want to pick up this occlusion of
23:18
the hepatic artery before this sets in, because once
23:22
this sets in, this kid is just waiting for a new liver.
23:26
So, what else can happen that can look pretty confusing?
23:31
So, uh, the infarcts may or may not get super infected.
23:37
Uh, they may or may not have gas in them.
23:40
Gas doesn't always mean super infection.
23:43
Um, so you may have to, like, biopsy that something
23:45
like this to figure out if this is just air from
23:48
the infarct or this is really an infected area.
23:52
Um, this is a condition that's actually not very
23:57
well recognized by radiologists for some reason.
24:00
And these are biliary casts.
24:02
Um, uh, I have to admit, I don't diagnose a
24:05
lot of biliary casts, but, you know, they're
24:08
pretty dramatic when you actually see them.
24:10
There are these echogenic things
24:12
that are within the bile ducts.
24:14
And this is how they look on MR.
24:17
So these are biliary casts; this is an ERCP image.
24:24
Okay, now we talked about fish-mouth
24:26
anastomosis; let's talk about pseudoaneurysm.
24:28
So the fish-mouth anastomosis looks like a fish mouth.
24:32
This thing looks like a blob, it
24:35
looks like a circle, a sphere.
24:38
And then you have this ultrasound artifact,
24:41
the yin-yang phenomenon or yin-yang artifact.
24:45
It's basically the to-and-fro waveform.
24:48
Um, the thing to know about pseudoaneurysms is
24:50
that, um, when it hasn't ruptured, um, there,
24:54
there are no clinical symptoms.
24:57
But when it does rupture, there's
24:59
a huge bleed, and it, you know, it can
25:02
be fatal in a high percentage of patients.
25:04
So, um, you have to always look for pseudoaneurysms
25:08
in a post-transplant setting.
25:11
Um, everybody, for the most part, is now transitioning
25:16
to dictations that are very templated.
25:18
So this should be one of your templates, where you
25:21
have to look at, you know, pseudoaneurysms.
25:24
Present or absent.
25:26
This is another example of pseudoaneurysm.
25:28
They don't have to be at the porta hepatis;
25:31
they can actually even be intraparenchymal.
25:33
A lot of these livers get lots of biopsies
25:36
periodically to look for rejection.
25:43
Moving on to the portal vein.
25:44
So, um, everybody knows this, right?
25:46
So, um, hepatopetal flow,
25:48
monophasic, um, normal portal vein.
25:51
Uh, you can get hepatofugal flow
25:55
when there's portal hypertension.
25:57
Now, portal vein stenosis is a complication.
26:03
It happens, um, but it's not an acute complication.
26:07
Um, how do you diagnose a portal vein stenosis?
26:11
Well, at the anastomosis, you get three
26:14
to four times increased velocity, as the
26:17
native velocities will be really high.
26:20
Why do you get this?
26:21
Mostly because of a caliber mismatch during surgery.
26:26
So, how can it be treated?
26:29
Well, balloon angioplasty for the most part.
26:33
Portal vein thrombosis—uh, nothing special about
26:37
portal vein thrombosis other than that it has to be treated.
26:40
Chronic portal vein thrombosis with cavernoma
26:43
formation, um, doesn't need any specific treatment.
26:48
Arteriovenous fistula, how do you
26:50
diagnose an arteriovenous fistula?
26:52
Well, if you've actually spent time in the ultrasound room,
26:55
you can actually diagnose an arteriovenous fistula just from
26:59
what it sounds like on Doppler—that machinery sort of sound.
27:03
Even if you're not in the room, you're outside; you’re
27:06
outside the ultrasound room, you can actually just
27:09
listen to it and diagnose arteriovenous fistula.
27:13
But that’s how it looks on
27:14
ultrasound, and on a CTA or MRA,
27:18
if you start to see a lot of veins
27:20
in the early arterial phase, there’s
27:22
got to be an arteriovenous fistula.
27:26
Hepatic veins—you get, um, so you have a
27:30
normal phasic flow in the hepatic vein that represents
27:34
pressure changes in the right side of the heart.
27:38
And, uh, what happens when you get stenosis?
27:40
Well, same thing as the portal vein—you get really, really
27:43
high velocities, aliasing at the site of stenosis.
27:48
There may be blunting of waveforms, but you definitely want to
27:51
show that; you want to move the patient into
27:54
the decubitus view to make sure that persists.
28:01
Hepatic vein stenosis quite commonly
28:04
happens—remember, every complication
28:06
happens at the surgical anastomosis.
28:08
So you're, you're going to have a stenosis at the
28:11
piggyback anastomosis, and then you, you can angioplasty it.
28:15
Um, when, when is it a significant stenosis?
28:20
On the venous side, a pressure gradient of
28:22
five millimeters of mercury, um, is considered
28:25
a significant, um, hemodynamically
28:29
significant pressure gradient on the venous side.
28:31
On the arterial side, the number is 20.
28:34
Um, so you, you need, you can do an angioplasty;
28:37
instead, you can get, uh, hepatic vein thrombosis.
28:41
Biliary complications, um, are common.
28:44
Um, they're, they're not usually
28:47
very acute or very significant.
28:49
Um, what happens is that, um, you
28:52
can get two types of biliary issues.
28:54
One is the anastomotic stricture.
28:56
How do you identify an anastomotic stricture?
28:58
Well, it's very focal only at the site of anastomosis.
29:02
Um, and, and the rest of the bile ducts look totally fine.
29:06
So this is, they may be dilated from the stricture,
29:08
but other than that, they look totally fine.
29:10
Uh, if, if the bile ducts look very, very ugly,
29:15
you're probably looking at an ischemic stricture.
29:19
So ischemic cholangiopathy looks like that;
29:21
anastomotic stricture looks like that.
29:23
These are the only two, like, biliary images that
29:26
you need to burn in your mind, um, for this topic.
29:30
Now, bile leaks, uh, small bile leaks, very,
29:33
very common, um, and what do we do about them?
29:37
If, if they're small and they continue to
29:39
remain small or decrease, not really much.
29:42
Um, you can, you can diagnose and treat
29:45
at the same time if you're doing an ERCP.
29:48
Um, but if they're large, uh, biliary
29:50
leaks, they may have to be treated.
29:53
Cholangitis, uh, this fluffy,
29:55
feathery, uh, signal with enhancement.
29:59
Um, is, is, is, uh, pretty classic for
30:02
cholangitis in this setting, especially higher
30:04
risk if there is a choledochojejunostomy.
30:07
Um, peritransplant fluid collections, uh, the most important
30:11
thing is to put a color box on any, any transplant or
30:15
peritransplant fluid collection because you absolutely
30:19
want to make sure that it's not a pseudoaneurysm.
30:21
Now you don't want to be putting a
30:22
drain in a pseudoaneurysm, right?
30:24
So any, anytime you see a peritransplant fluid
30:27
collection, do not put a needle into it until
30:31
you've made sure there's no color flow through it.
30:34
And these are your options, pseudoaneurysm.
30:39
Um, if they're small, they're decreasing,
30:42
you don't need to do anything.
30:44
Uh, if they're large, make sure it's not
30:46
a pseudoaneurysm, then you can drain it.
30:48
Um, they can look, um, different.
30:52
They can have septations.
30:53
They can have a hematocrit fluid level.
30:55
Um, they can look pretty ugly.
30:57
So, um, peritransplant fluid collection, um, again,
31:01
the most important thing, um, before you try to
31:04
manage it is to make sure it's not a pseudohemorrhage.
31:07
Now malignancy.
31:09
So, there's only one thing you need
31:11
to know, uh, about, uh, malignancy.
31:14
Any mass in the setting of any transplant.
31:17
And, and it's a very simple, uh,
31:20
uh, you know, educational principle.
31:24
If, if a patient has had a transplant and
31:28
there is something that looks like a mass, the,
31:30
the next step is going to be a biopsy, right?
31:34
Now this is true like 99 percent of the time.
31:37
The only exception being if the malignancy
31:40
that you're looking at is very classic.
31:41
So if you have an HCC that's showing the
31:44
classic wave, uh, classic enhancement pattern
31:47
of an HCC, maybe you don't have to hedge there.
31:50
Um, but what happens here is that it is a long
31:53
laundry list of the differential diagnosis.
31:55
The differential diagnosis includes, you know, the tumor
31:58
that for which the transplant was done may have come back.
32:01
But you can have a whole host of other malignancies, either
32:05
de novo from cancer health happening elsewhere in the body,
32:09
or cancers, some cancers that happen from immunosuppression.
32:13
And in addition to that, you have PTLD, which is post
32:16
transplantation lymphoproliferative disease, which can
32:19
look like anything, which can happen anywhere, any organ.
32:22
I've seen it in the brain too.
32:23
So, um, you have this laundry list
32:26
of, uh, differential diagnosis.
32:28
Don't get too confused by it.
32:30
You see a focal mass in the setting of
32:32
any transplant, be it liver or elsewhere.
32:34
Your next step almost always is biopsy.
32:38
So, uh, it can look like this in the liver, it can
32:41
look like bowel masses, um, it, it can be anything.
32:45
So, again, the most important thing,
32:47
uh, about PTLD is the next step.
32:49
Here's another example of PTLD.
32:52
It can be anywhere, it can look like anything.
32:55
Next step is biopsy.
32:56
So the last thing that I want to talk about
32:58
in the bowel setting is internal hernias, right?
33:02
So with all this surgery, liver transplant
33:06
surgeries, some holes form in the mesentery and
33:10
you have to look for these internal hernias.
33:13
Now internal hernias for an abdominal
33:15
radiologist, tough, tough diagnosis, right?
33:18
But if you look for, um, swirling, if you look for,
33:22
you know, veins, uh, getting pinched and then widening, if you
33:25
look for, um, you know, loops that are forming a cluster,
33:30
if you look for, uh, that cluster having a little neck,
33:33
um, if you, if you only see dilation in, in, in one part.
33:38
So once you, you know, once the alarm goes off that this
33:41
looks like an internal hernia, you know, almost everyone
33:44
opens a paper to see what type of internal hernia this is.
33:48
And, and giving the name and giving a fancy name and getting
33:52
the type of internal hernia absolutely right is amazing.
33:56
But I think more important is, uh, just picking out that
33:59
there might be an internal hernia here and tipping the
34:01
surgeon so that the patient can go to the operating room.
34:05
So, um, this is an internal hernia
34:08
with this hole in the mesentery.
34:10
So, um, now this is the most important slide.
34:13
So this is where you need to pay attention.
34:14
So we were building up to this slide.
34:16
Uh, we have a copy of the slide that's pasted
34:19
in our ultrasound reading room.
34:21
Um, it took a lot of effort for
34:24
us to, you know, organize this.
34:25
I sent a lot of emails to our transplant surgeons
34:28
to get, to get this algorithm just right.
34:30
So the most important thing in a transplant setting
34:33
is whether you have symptoms or you don't have symptoms.
34:35
The first step can always be an ultrasound.
34:37
So it's a screening test.
34:39
It can show a lot of things.
34:40
It can show a completely normal ultrasound,
34:43
but remember you can have symptoms.
34:45
You can have abnormal LFTs, but what if
34:47
you ended up with a normal ultrasound?
34:49
Well, the next step is biopsy because the number one
34:51
thing you want to exclude is rejection, and you can
34:54
have other things like drug toxicity, uh, that may
34:57
be producing those symptoms or abnormal LFTs.
35:01
Now, if on that screening ultrasound, you
35:03
see biliary dilation, um, the next
35:07
step should be if, do you want to treat that
35:10
biliary dilation in which you would do ERCP?
35:12
Because in ERCP you can diagnose and treat at the same time.
35:16
Or if you, or if it's not urgent, you can do
35:18
MRCP for planning and then proceed with the ERCP.
35:21
If the ultrasound shows a transplant or
35:23
peri-transplant fluid collection, remember?
35:26
Always exclude a pseudoaneurysm first.
35:29
Once you've done that, you can decide how to treat it.
35:32
If it's, if it's a small fluid collection,
35:34
you can continue to observe it.
35:36
If it's a large one causing mass effect,
35:39
um, then you may want to treat it.
35:42
If you have a portal vein thrombosis, if it's a
35:44
new thrombosis, obviously you want to deal with it.
35:46
If it's an old thrombosis and it's collateralized,
35:50
there's nothing you need to do about it.
35:52
Um, hepatic artery thrombosis.
35:56
Remember, this is the "do not miss" case
35:59
because the ramifications are huge.
36:01
If you miss a hepatic artery thrombosis,
36:03
you're going to kill the transplant.
36:04
So don't miss that.
36:07
In an acute setting, you want to re-explore,
36:10
you want to, you know, I showed you all
36:11
those cases where IR was able to help out.
36:15
But, but in acute hepatic artery thrombosis is the
36:17
most important, um, entity amongst all of this.
36:21
If you have, if you, if, if you do an
36:23
angiogram and you see those collaterals,
36:24
you know, you can have conservative management.
36:27
If you see a mass, the next step is biopsy. Anything, anything else,
36:30
um, is academic, uh, in the, uh, in the transplant plus
36:35
focal mass scenario.
36:38
Uh, a while back we, um, we organized an issue,
36:42
uh, on topics in transplantation imaging for,
36:45
uh, Radiologic Clinics of North America.
36:49
I worked with, um, one of my friends, uh, Dr.Heller.
36:53
He's now at the Mayo Clinic.
36:54
Um, this is, uh, not much has changed, actually.
36:58
Uh, even though this issue was compiled in
36:59
2016, um, the concepts still remain the same.
37:03
Um, uh, most of the images that I showed you and that
37:07
algorithm in case you want it, it's, uh, it's actually a
37:10
part of this paper that I wrote in my fellowship years.
37:12
These are...
37:13
These are some other good papers in
37:15
Radiographics, um, about liver transplant.
37:18
I specifically recommend at least glancing through the
37:22
paper on the right because it actually shows what are the
37:25
reversible findings in the immediate postoperative period.
37:30
With that, let's spend a few minutes on the second topic.
37:35
So, um, the next topic is, um, how to help a
37:40
surgeon when, um, they're trying to do a liver
37:44
resection for a malignant liver lesion, right?
37:46
What can, how can we help?
37:49
So, um, the most important thing here to understand
37:54
is that even though we spend a lot of time talking
37:56
about liver transplant imaging, um, surgical
38:00
resection is the treatment of choice in hepatocellular
38:04
carcinoma and in colorectal cancer metastases.
38:12
So, um, how do we, how do we help the surgeon here, right?
38:17
So, um, why is surgery, surgical resection,
38:22
the treatment of choice and not transplant?
38:25
That is because this actually increases the
38:28
five-year survival rate and when the selection,
38:31
uh, when the selection is done appropriately,
38:34
and it offers the potential for cure, right?
38:37
So, um, liver transplant, we have the Milan
38:40
criteria, which is three tumors less than three
38:43
centimeters or one tumor less than five centimeters.
38:47
Anything outside of this will not fit in the
38:51
transplant setting, but if at all possible,
38:54
surgical resection is the treatment
38:56
of choice for liver transplant.
38:59
Now, why do we do surgical resection?
38:01
Because the goal is to eliminate macroscopic disease.
39:04
So if you can actually resect the liver,
39:07
and that is the only site of disease on the PET
39:11
image that's shown, then you would do great.
39:15
Then that tumor can be resected.
39:18
You want to make sure that the, um, that the
39:20
liver function, uh, is, uh, is appropriate.
39:25
Uh, this is all done, uh, by the, by the surgical team.
39:28
You want to make sure that the disease is localized.
39:30
You want to make sure that there's no extrahepatic disease.
39:35
And this is how we plan.
39:37
So you want to do what's called, uh, CT volumetric, right?
39:41
So, um, in surgical resection for a
39:44
malignant liver lesion, there's no size criteria.
39:47
You can resect a 10-centimeter
39:49
mass if it's exophytic.
39:51
Um, but you may not be able to resect a much
39:54
smaller tumor if it's at the wrong location.
39:56
So there's no size criteria.
39:58
in liver transplant resection.
40:00
But what you want to do is you want to make,
40:01
you want to make, you want to first make sure
40:04
what, what kind of surgery you're planning.
40:06
And you also, uh, want to, you want to have a
40:10
sense of how much liver is going to be left behind.
40:13
So, so what happens is that you, you locate your
40:17
tumor, you figure out what segments you're going
40:19
to take out, what you're going to leave behind.
40:22
And the way it works is that when you leave behind, um,
40:27
normal liver, uh, you actually need quite a bit less of it.
40:31
But if you leave behind a cirrhotic liver, then,
40:35
then you have to leave quite a bit more of it.
40:37
And we'll, we'll talk about that.
40:39
So traditionally, um, if you have multiple lesions,
40:44
um, if, if you can't achieve, uh, adequate resection
40:49
margin, if you have extrahepatic metastases,
40:51
for colorectal mets, uh, that's a contraindication.
40:54
For HCC, once you get portal venous, uh, or
40:58
hepatic venous invasion, uh, invasion of other
41:01
organs other than the gallbladder, disc,
41:03
and metastases, um, now you can't actually do surgery.
41:08
So this is a nice, uh, example to show, you know,
41:11
that these patients are not good candidates.
41:15
So, um, image on the left here, um, enhancing tumor
41:19
going into the heart, um, tumor thrombus going into
41:23
the portal vein, multifocal disease and whatnot.
41:27
So I think, um, everybody who reads livers, um, should
41:31
be very familiar with, um, anatomic liver segments.
41:35
Um, so this is just a recap.
41:37
I'm not going to go into liver segments, but uh, if you
41:39
haven't figured this out, um, it's very important to
41:42
describe these liver lesions and which segments they are,
41:46
and they may occasionally be across multiple segments.
41:50
So I think this, uh, this nomenclature
41:53
is, is really important to understand.
41:55
Um, so, uh, left hepatectomy is segments
42:00
two, three, and four, but left lateral
42:02
lobectomy, uh, segment four is not resected.
42:05
Uh, you'll, you'll often hear about right hepatectomy,
42:09
which is five, six, seven, eight, not four.
42:11
Um, but then if the surgeons want to remove segment
42:14
four, in addition to five, six, seven, eight,
42:16
it's an extended right hepatectomy, right?
42:19
So the others are not that common.
42:22
So, um, what are the indications for major liver resection?
42:26
So like I was talking about, sometimes the
42:28
masses are not isolated to a liver segment.
42:31
They may actually cross multiple segments.
42:34
So when they cross multiple segments, that's
42:37
when you know you have to resect more than four
42:39
segments and that's a much more involved surgery.
42:43
But our job here is to describe what
42:46
segments are crossed by the tumor.
42:48
So you can see even large tumors can undergo resection.
42:53
There's no size criteria.
42:55
Here's some examples of, you know,
42:58
tumors that underwent resection.
42:59
So that 55-year-old man, the large
43:02
right-sided tumor was resected.
43:05
Segment A and B is preoperative.
43:07
Image C and D is postoperative,
43:09
but unfortunately, he had a recurrence.
43:12
The case on the right, um, underwent right hepatectomy.
43:16
Now, this is how it looks in the operating room.
43:19
Um, this is courtesy of one of our,
43:20
uh, surgery colleagues from U Dub.
43:22
Um, so the tumors can be taken out
43:25
and this is how they look post-surgery.
43:28
Uh, our job is to, to identify segments and also
43:32
define for the surgeons in multiphasic images, uh,
43:36
the relationship of the tumor to the different veins.
43:41
So, uh, here's some more
43:43
examples of, uh, tumor resection.
43:46
Um, lots of tumors.
43:47
The more central the tumor becomes, the more
43:50
extensive the liver resection has to be.
43:53
And that's exemplified in the case at the bottom.
43:56
Um, now there are some, there are some resections
44:00
that are atypical resections or wedge resections.
44:03
Um, so sometimes we get lucky.
44:05
Sometimes tumors are at the periphery,
44:07
and they're not central.
44:09
And even though they may be multiple,
44:11
uh, we can actually just wedge them out.
44:14
Wedge them out means we take a triangular piece
44:16
of tissue at the periphery of the liver and we
44:18
don't have to do large liver segment resections.
44:22
So this is how, um, wedge resections look like.
44:25
So sometimes you'll see, um, you know, patients
44:29
who come in with imaging that looks like that.
44:31
You, you go back to see the old scans and you see
44:34
that they haven't really done a major resection.
44:36
They've just done a wedge resection.
44:38
So just taking triangular pieces of tissue at the periphery.
44:42
So, um, the last thing I'm going to
44:45
talk about is portal vein embolization.
44:47
Uh, portal vein embolization, uh, it,
44:50
it's not a common procedure, but you may
44:53
come across, uh, this entity occasionally.
44:57
Um, so what happens is that, um, you want to leave,
45:00
uh, about 15% of normal liver behind and 40%
45:05
of cirrhotic liver behind at the minimum.
45:09
Now your surgeons may use slightly different numbers.
45:11
So please check with them.
45:12
Some surgeons are more conservative.
45:14
They leave slightly more than the numbers that I described.
45:18
But in portal vein resection, a portal venous embolization,
45:22
PVE, um, what happens is that the, the residual liver
45:27
as we're planning, um, is, is actually, um, borderline.
45:33
So they want to grow that liver a little bit.
45:35
So what they do is they embolize the
45:37
portal vein on the side of the tumor.
45:39
And they wait, uh, for this window of four to six weeks.
45:44
They do a repeat, uh, uh, CT volumetric to
45:47
make sure that the liver, the liver has grown.
45:50
And then they do the surgical section.
45:52
So that's portal vein embolization.
45:53
So, remember, um, the treatment of choice for a malignant
45:59
liver tumor is surgical resection, and a transplant is
46:04
the treatment of choice for end-stage liver disease.
46:07
Uh, it's only the second-best option for, uh, for, um,
46:12
uh, for treatment of focal malignant liver lesions.
46:17
So with that, we can take some questions.
46:28
Yes, so one of the questions is, can
46:30
contrast-enhanced ultrasound help to
46:33
detect hepatic artery with more confidence?
46:36
Uh, yes.
46:37
So, um, increasingly, um, contrast-enhanced ultrasound is being utilized,
46:42
um, to outline, um, the hepatic artery.
46:46
To look at, um, enhancement characteristics of focal liver lesions.
46:51
Now, uh, unfortunately, uh, North America is pretty
46:55
behind, um, compared to their European, um,
46:57
uh, ultrasound colleagues,
47:01
because Europe is far more advanced in utilizing,
47:06
um, microbubble contrast agents and ultrasound.
47:10
But yes, uh, increasingly, uh, everybody in North
47:13
America, uh, is utilizing, uh, microbubble agents.
47:16
Um, but again, whether you use microbubble contrast or, or
47:21
CCTA, it really, the decision, and from what I have seen,
47:31
they continue to use, uh, angiogram as the primary modality.
47:35
Uh, not so much.
47:38
Uh, not so much, uh, microbubble ultrasound contrast.
47:43
So the other, uh, the other question
47:45
is, what is the threshold for biliary
47:48
ductal dilatation in a transplant liver?
47:50
So there's no size threshold that we use.
47:53
Um, you can get minimal ductal dilatation, um, in, um,
48:02
in some livers.
48:04
We're not super concerned about minimal ductal
48:06
dilatation, but, uh, if it starts to become,
48:11
um, more than minimal with, um, changes in liver
48:16
function tests, that's when we get concerned.
48:18
So there's no size criteria for biliary ductal dilation.
48:22
Okay, the next question is, is piggyback
48:25
anastomosis done for adults other than kids?
48:28
Piggyback anastomosis, um, is, uh, the
48:34
only, uh, anastomotic, uh, technique that we do
48:38
nowadays, um, in orthotopic liver transplants.
48:42
Uh, I don't know about in the pediatric
48:45
setting since I'm not a pediatric radiologist.
48:48
Um, does NAFLD change the threshold
48:53
for residual liver volume?
48:55
Um, I think the residual liver volume, um, is
49:00
mainly based on whether, uh, it's related to, um,
49:06
the imaging appearance of the residual liver, if,
49:09
and on the biopsy, if the residual liver is, is
49:13
thought to be, um, cirrhotic versus non-cirrhotic.
49:17
So, uh, other than that, I don't know
49:19
much more specific about, uh, NAFLD.
49:23
But transplant surgeons are all on top of this.
49:26
This is a good question to ask them.
49:29
But I think if we, like in the liver transplant,
49:32
I kid you not, if you can look at the hepatic
49:34
artery and make sure that the hepatic artery is
49:38
open, when you're taking Paul, you've done more
49:43
than, more than your job in the emergent setting.
49:47
And if you can actually, uh, that algorithm from the
49:50
AJR article that I wrote many years ago, if you can
49:54
just, uh, you know, get that algorithm and put it
49:57
in your ultrasound room and then just follow that
50:00
algorithm, uh, you'll manage these things exactly right.
50:04
But, uh, if you're new to liver transplant
50:06
imaging, uh, it's definitely worth, um, spending
50:11
a few minutes, uh, looking at the preoperative
50:13
technique when your surgeons come down or call you.
50:16
So definitely ask them questions about what
50:18
surgical techniques they're using and whatnot.
50:21
And, um, um, when you have a confusing case, call them.
50:24
So, so that, uh, you can understand what
50:27
their thinking is and how they're managing it.
50:33
Okay.
50:33
Any more, any more questions?
50:36
I think we've run out of questions.
50:38
Maybe we can give it another minute, uh, just in case any of
50:41
the other attendees want to, um, you know, get anything in.
50:45
Okay.
50:46
I'm happy to take any other liver
50:47
questions, too, if anybody has them.
50:51
There are a couple just, uh, populated.
50:55
Okay.
50:59
So, um, what is the, uh, uh, preferred imaging modality for
51:05
hepatic artery thrombosis, CTA versus catheter angiography?
51:11
Again, this is not a decision that we make.
51:13
This is a decision that the transplant team makes.
51:17
If, um, if in the operating room, um, the,
51:21
the, the caliber, uh, of the hepatic artery,
51:24
the donor recipient mismatch was significant.
51:28
And they're actually expecting hepatic artery complications.
51:33
They may take the patient back to the
51:34
operating room or go for a catheter angiography
51:37
because at the same time they can treat it.
51:39
But if, but if they're not that the
51:41
patient is doing really, really well.
51:43
If the, if the liver function tests are great.
51:46
Uh, then, uh, they may be like, well, let's do a CT and
51:49
just make sure because our index of suspicion is really low.
51:53
Um, Do we use Lyrads for liver transplant mass?
51:58
Um, not really.
51:59
So the reason we don't is because in the,
52:02
in the post transplant setting, Um, Uh,
52:07
HCC is not the only tumor that happens.
52:10
And so, um, you know, bottom line, if you get a
52:14
focal mass, that's new in the post, uh, transplant
52:18
setting, whether it be liver transplant or any
52:20
other transplant, the next step is always a biopsy.
52:27
All right.
52:28
Well, I think that is it for the questions.
52:30
And as we bring this noon conference to
52:32
a close, I would like to thank, uh,
52:35
Dr. Bhargava for this lecture and thanks to all of
52:37
you for participating in our noon conference.
52:40
A reminder that this conference will
52:41
be available on demand on MRI online.com
52:45
In addition to all previous noon conferences and be
52:48
sure to join us again on Friday for a lecture from
52:51
Dr. Megan Mills on traumatic injuries of the brachial plexus.
52:55
You can register for that at MRI online.
52:59
com and follow us on social media at the MRI online
53:03
for updates and reminders on upcoming noon conferences.
53:06
Thanks again and have a great day.
53:08
Thank you.