Diagnostic Utility of Triple-Phase CT: Differentiating Benign Liver Lesions from Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Dogs

Abstract

This study aimed to identify triple-phase computed tomographic features that can predict the histotype of focal liver lesions in dogs. The analysis included dogs with histopathologically diagnosed nodular hyperplasia (NH, n = 3), hepatocellular adenoma (HCA, n = 32), or hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC, n = 59). Consistent with previous studies (Kutara et al. 2014; Burti et al. 2021), significant differences were observed in maximum transverse diameter (p =.008) and enhancement patterns (p =.0031) among the lesion types. HCCs were significantly larger and exhibited heterogeneous enhancement compared with benign lesions. In the portal venous phase, benign lesions were significantly hyperattenuating (p