Liver, spleen and biliary tree

Nuclear medicine occupies a unique niche amongst various imaging modalities by virtue of its ability to evaluate functional and physiologic parameters in a non-invasive and quantitative manner. Although at one time scintigraphic studies were used as primary modalities to address anatomic questions, these tasks are currently performed by the higher-resolution modalities ultrasound (US), computed tomography (CT), and magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. In current practice, nuclear medicine retains a more limited though unique role in the functional and physiologic characterization of tissue (Zuckier and Freeman 2003).