Needle biopsy and transhepatic cannulation of blood vessels and bile ducts of the liver have been used for several years. Owing to the proximity of the systems, short circuits may sometimes occur after puncture. It was therefore thought worthwhile to investigate experimentally possible vascular complications following the procedure.Material and Methods. Twenty-eight Swedish land rabbits, weighing between 1.4 and 3.4 kg, were anaesthetized with pentobarbitone sodium intravenously. A catheter (OPP 60, OD/ID 1.15/0.75 mm) with a long tapered tip bent about 30 0 was introduced into the common hepatic artery through one of the femoral arteries under magnification fluoroscopy. Twofold (0.3 mm focal spot) or fourfold (0.1 focal spot) magnification angiography was performed with a film changer (AOT 24 em X 30 cm) and high pressure injector, 2 to 3 ml Isopaque Cerebral (meglumine metrizoate) being injected at a rate of about 0.5 ml/s, Technical data: 90 kV, 3.2 mAs, 0.032 s-twofold magnification, and 90 kV, 1.6 mAs and 0.05 s-fourfold magnification. RP film and Rubin screens. Film programme: 6/3,4/8 films/so

Two patients with leiomyosarcoma of the suprarenal inferior vena cava are presented. In one case the tumour was misinterpreted as intrahepatic at angiography. In the second case an extrahepatic location was suggested after repeated angiography. The diagnosis should be borne in mind when a large hypovascular mass appears to be located centrally in the liver at coeliac angiography and when ultrasound examination has revealed its solid nature.

Angiography after liver puncture was performed at different intervals in 51 patients. Fourteen cases had abnormalities believed to be caused by the puncture. Most of these were small but there were also 4 cases with large liver hematomas and 1 case with an abscess between the liver and the abdominal wall, none requiring acute surgery. No certain correlation between the severity of the injury and the diameter of the puncture instrument could be assessed.

Two different iodized oil emulsion have been intravascularly injected into rabbits, one with a particle size of 15 mum or more and one with a size of about 1 mum. The effects of the emulsions have been evaluated on the brain, the heart, the kidney, the liver and the circulation. The reactions to the small particle emulsion was minor, especially if administered slowly. The injection site was of critical importance. The safest place for injection was the superior mesenteric artery. If supplied directly to the brain or the heart the emulsions were often deleterious, particularly the coarse one.