DETECTION OF A LIVER TUMOR IN A BEAGLE DOG USING SINGLE PHOTON EMISSION COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY

This case report describes the detection of a liver tumor in an 11–year‐old female Beagle dog using single photon‐emission computed tomography (SPECT). A mass was palpated in the cranial abdomen during removal of recurrent mammary tumors. A conventional nuclear medicine liver scan, following injection of 99mTc‐sulfur colloid, was equivocal. SPECT was then performed in a second procedure, using a simple system that rotated the dog before a gamma camera. Transverse plane images clearly showed a spheric space‐occupying lesion, found at gross necropsy and confirmed histologically as a hepatoma. Discrete liver tumors may be detected more readily and their size determined more accurately using SPECT than with conventional nuclear medicine approaches.