"Skip areas" in hepatic steatosis: a sonographic-angiographic study.

"Skip areas" in focal steatosis describes a newly proposed "subsegmental type" of focal steatosis, which differs in both extent and topography from the more classic "lobar or segmental type" of focal steatosis. In the subsegmental type of steatosis, fatty infiltration can be considered homogeneous throughout the liver, with the exception of small flattened portions of less affected parenchyma, called "skip areas." These regions are mainly located in the subcapsular areas or along the interlobar fissures or the gallbladder bed. Observations using ultrasound in vivo, as well as on postmortem in vitro angiograms, suggest that both the extent and topography of these skip areas can be explained by local differences in vascular anatomy.