Passive hepatic congestion in heart failure: CT abnormalities

Department of Radiology, University Hospital, Cincinnati, OH 45267-0742.

Using bolus-enhanced CT, we encountered an unusual constellation of findings in seven patients with clinical evidence of right heart failure. These included retrograde hepatic venous opacification on the early bolus scans and a diffusely mottled pattern of hepatic enhancement seen only during the vascular phase of contrast administration. Ancillary CT findings include cardiomegaly, pleural effusions, ascites, and intrahepatic perivascular radiolucency. We believe that these CT abnormalities are caused by passive hepatic congestion. This pattern of abnormal hepatic enhancement represents a potential pitfall in the use of dynamic bolus-enhanced CT for the detection of focal hepatic masses. Recognition of passive hepatic congestion as a possible cause of mottled hepatic enhancement on CT may help explain clinical abnormalities of liver function in patients with heart failure and prevent confusion with other disease processes that produce abnormalities of hepatic attenuation.
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