Hepatic disease is often treatable and has a predictable prognosis when a definitive diagnosis is made. The aim of clinicopathological evaluation of hepatobiliary affections is to identify and characterize hepatic damage and dysfunction, identify possible primary causes of secondary liver disease, differentiate causes of icterus, evaluate potential anaesthetic risks, assess prognosis and response to xenobiotics, and monitor response to therapy. This paper describes the different diagnostic methods and imaging techniques employed in diagnosis of hepatobiliary affections in dogs. Besides reviewing the significant clinical manifestations and imaging structural abnormalities in diagnostic approach to different hepatic affections, it also depicts radiographic, ultrasonographic, and wherever applicable, the laparoscopic characterization of different hepatic affections and target lesions encountered in clinical cases presented in the Teaching Veterinary Clinical Complex, COVAS, Palampur in the year 2007-2008. 1. Introduction Hepatic affections in the dog are associated with varied and often vague clinical signs and thus frequently present a diagnostic challenge to veterinary practitioners. As the liver has great functional reserve capacity, detection of the hepatic functional impairment by conventional means is only possible once a significant hepatic dysfunction (≥55%) is present [1]. Furthermore, systemic diseases and various drugs can cause misleading increases in serum activities (secondary or reactive hepatopathies), and it can be a clinical dilemma to decide whether liver enzyme elevations are significant, and whether they represent primary or secondary liver disease [2]. Despite availability of a range of diagnostic tests of both hepatic damage and dysfunction, there is rarely a single test that adequately identifies hepatic disease or its underlying cause. The role of survey radiography in detecting the alteration in liver size has been widely emphasized. But with the advent of time, ultrasonography evolved as the paramount technique of diagnostic imaging. The desirable virtues of less time consumption and noninvasive assessment of the detailed internal architecture of the liver and the adjacent structures, including the portal vein, established ultrasonography as the choicest technology, for identifying the various forms of hepatic disease in canines [2]. Presently, laparoscopy is also emerging as a fruitful imaging modality. It offers tremendous advantage of direct visceral visual inspection of liver and allows its descriptive or photographic
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