[Ultrasound diagnostics of diffuse liver diseases].

The current improvements in modern high resolution ultrasound technology, like Tissue Harmonic Imaging (THI), Speckle Reduction Imaging (SRI), partial color coding of B-mode (Color Coded Imaging), and also the advent of ultrasound based elastography as well as contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) offer fundamentally new ways to characterize diffuse alterations of the liver parenchyma. Besides metabolic disease, disorders of liver fat distribution, infectious and malignant diseases can cause diffuse alterations of the liver parenchyma. In case of liver fibrosis, only a combination of different ultrasound techniques including CEUS, allows the differentiation between benign dysplastic and malignant lesions. Ultrasound elastography allows assessing the extent of the fibrosis. This article focuses on the different ultrasound based diagnostic possibilities in case of diffuse liver disease.