Hepatic artery angiography helps diagnose early liver cancer

Hepatic artery angiography is the most sensitive method for diagnosing liver cancer. It can usually detect liver cancer with a diameter of 1 cm, and even liver cancer with a diameter of 0.5 cm. In the arterial phase after the injection of contrast agent, it can be observed that the density of liver cancer vessels increases, the direction is disordered, and the blood vessels shift. In the parenchymal phase and venous phase, it is observed that the contrast agent stays in the tumor area to form tumor staining. Liver cancer can be diagnosed based on these characteristics.

However, hepatic arteriography is an invasive examination and is not used as a routine examination for liver cancer. It is generally only used in combination with transhepatic arterial embolization chemotherapy, or when non-invasive examinations such as ultrasound, CT, and MRI cannot detect liver cancer and the clinical diagnosis is highly suspected. In addition, for patients whose alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) continues to increase and it cannot be determined whether it is hepatitis or other diseases, and CT, ultrasound, and MRI do not find tumors or cannot be diagnosed, digital subtraction angiography (DSA) hepatic arteriography or a small amount of iodized oil diagnostic embolization is also required to detect early liver cancer.

When performing hepatic artery angiography before splenic artery embolization on patients with hypersplenism, it was found that some patients also had liver cancer, and some patients even had diffuse liver cancer. Therefore, patients with cirrhosis and hypersplenism should pay attention to it, because the appearance of liver cancer is sometimes very hidden, and regular examinations are needed to detect and treat it early.