daisy1963
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Posts:41
Mom's CT scan had this note "heterogeneity in radiotracer uptake noted within the liver which may be physiologic". No action taken. 3 months later her liver was covered in 22 tumors. Can anyone interpret that statement and should it have raised a flag?
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Reply # - October 5, 2013, 07:52 AM
Reply To: Should this have raised a red flag?
It means that they can't interpret an ambiguous appearance of the liver but think it could just be normal.
This wouldn't clearly raise any red flags. It's just the radiologist hedging and saying they think it looks kind of funny but can't say more. With the benefit of hindsight, you can see this must have been the early indication of metastatic spread, but if there were an MRI or some other dedicated liver imaging, it might have just come to the same (non-)conclusion or, at best/worst, you'd know there's widespread metastases a few months earlier. That doesn't lead to any better treatment opportunities.
I'm very sorry that's how things turned out, but there weren't any missed red flags, and it just would have meant knowing about the metastases a little sooner.
Good luck.
-Dr. West
Reply # - October 5, 2013, 07:58 AM
Reply To: Should this have raised a red flag?
As usual, many thanks for clarification,
warm regards