Assessment of compatibility between the results of standard abdominal CT and liver window CT in the diagnosis of liver space occupying lesion

CT scan has a primary role in the imaging of the liver. CT images can be viewed with different regulations or the so called windows. The aim of this study was to determine the extent of consistency of the results of the liver window settings with those of standard abdominal CT in the diagnosis of space-occupying lesions in the liver. This was a cross-sectional study and included 162 patients who had been followed up for cancer, or had abdominal trauma or any abdominal symptoms. Standard abdominal CT scan with contrast injection was performed. Then the results of the scans were reviewed by two experienced radiologists for the presence or absence of liver lesions. Using SPSS 20 software, data analysis was performed by statistical tests. Because of the lack of agreement between our radiologists on the detection of lesions in 10 patients, the analysis was performed on 152 patients. According to the liver standard window settings 27.6% and 32.2% of the patients had liver lesions, respectively. Use of liver window settings resulted in the detection of increased number of lesions in 10.5% of the patients. Also, there was a significant difference between the number of liver space occupying lesions in the liver window settings and standard abdominal CT. The compatibility between the results of the two window settings was 0.78. The results of this study showed that the number of detected lesions in the CT of liver window was more than those in the CT of standard window settings, and this difference was significant. Therefore, liver window settings can be a useful measure to determine the number of liver lesions.