Quantification of Liver Fat Content with Ultrasound: A WFUMB Position Paper.

Quantification of Liver Fat Content with Ultrasound: A WFUMB Position Paper.

Ferraioli G; Berzigotti A; Barr RG; Choi BI; Cui XW; Dong Y; Gilja OH; Lee JY; Lee DH; Moriyasu F; Piscaglia F; Sugimoto K; Wong GL; Wong VW; Dietrich CF

Ultrasound in Medicine & Biology

2021

2021-08-24

New ultrasound methods that can be used to quantitatively assess liver fat content have recently been developed. These quantitative ultrasound (QUS) methods are based on the analysis of radiofrequency echoes detected by the transducer, allowing calculation of parameters for quantifying the fat in the liver. In this position paper, after a section dedicated to the importance of quantifying liver steatosis in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and another section dedicated to the assessment of liver fat with magnetic resonance, the current clinical studies performed using QUS are summarized. These new methods include spectral-based techniques and techniques based on envelope statistics. The spectral-based techniques that have been used in clinical studies are those estimating the attenuation coefficient and those estimating the backscatter coefficient. Clinical studies that have used tools based on the envelope statistics of the backscattered ultrasound are those performed by using the acoustic structure quantification or other parameters derived from it, such as the normalized local variance, and that performed by estimating the speed of sound. Experts’ opinions are reported.

The assessment of steatosis (liver fat content) is relevant in patients suspected of, or diagnosed with, chronic liver diseases. Steatosis is usually a diffuse process within the liver tissue, but a non-uniform distribution can sometimes be observed (focal fatty changes or zonal/regional steatosis, focal or segmental sparing).

38; Biology. All rights reserved.

Journal Article

NEOMED College of Medicine

Department of Radiology

Jan to Aug list 2021