Biliary Hamartomas Simulating Multiple Hepatic Metastasis on Imaging Findings.

Abstract

We encountered a 62-year-old female with advanced gastric cancer, in whom multiple nodular lesions in the liver, which were depicted as small low density areas, less than 5 mm in diameter, on computed tomography and demonstrated as a heterogenic pattern on ultrasonograms. This patient was suspected to have multiple liver metastases of gastric cancer. She deteriorated gradually and died of respiratory failure due to lung metastasis. At autopsy these hepatic nodular lesions were biliary hamartomas. Biliary hamartoma is a lesion usually identified microscopically, and there have been only 8 cases including ours, which were depicted on images. Along with a remarkable advance in imagings, it should become more important to differentiate biliary hamartoma from malignant hepatic neoplasms on images.