Department of Medicine and Health Sciences "Vincenzo Tiberio", University of Molise, 86100, Campobasso, Italy.
Department of General Surgery, Center for Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, Pineta Grande Hospital, Castel Volturno, CE, Italy.
Radiol Med. 2024 Apr;129(4):549-557. doi: 10.1007/s11547-024-01786-y. Epub 2024 Mar 21.
Liver steatosis is the most common chronic liver disease and affects 10-24% of the general population. As the grade of disease can range from fat infiltration to steatohepatitis and cirrhosis, an early diagnosis is needed to set the most appropriate therapy. Innovative noninvasive radiological techniques have been developed through MRI and US. MRI-PDFF is the reference standard, but it is not so widely diffused due to its cost. For this reason, ultrasound tools have been validated to study liver parenchyma. The qualitative assessment of the brightness of liver parenchyma has now been supported by quantitative values of attenuation and scattering to make the analysis objective and reproducible. We aim to demonstrate the reliability of quantitative ultrasound in assessing liver fat and to confirm the inter-operator reliability in different respiratory phases. We enrolled 45 patients examined during normal breathing at rest, peak inspiration, peak expiration, and semi-sitting position. The highest inter-operator agreement in both attenuation and scattering parameters was achieved at peak inspiration and peak expiration, followed by semi-sitting position. In conclusion, this technology also allows to monitor uncompliant patients, as it grants high reliability and reproducibility in different body position and respiratory phases.
肝脂肪变性是最常见的慢性肝病,影响 10-24%的普通人群。由于疾病的严重程度可以从脂肪浸润到脂肪性肝炎和肝硬化不等,因此需要早期诊断,以确定最合适的治疗方法。创新的非侵入性影像学技术已经通过 MRI 和 US 得到了发展。MRI-PDFF 是参考标准,但由于其成本较高,尚未广泛普及。出于这个原因,已经验证了超声工具来研究肝实质。肝实质亮度的定性评估现在已经得到了衰减和散射的定量值的支持,使分析具有客观性和可重复性。我们旨在证明定量超声在评估肝脂肪方面的可靠性,并确认不同呼吸阶段的操作者间可靠性。我们招募了 45 名在正常呼吸、吸气高峰、呼气高峰和半坐姿下休息时接受检查的患者。在衰减和散射参数方面,操作者间的最高一致性是在吸气高峰和呼气高峰时达到的,其次是半坐姿。总之,这项技术还可以监测不配合的患者,因为它在不同的体位和呼吸阶段具有很高的可靠性和可重复性。