[Ultrasonography in the diagnosis of fatty liver (author's transl)].

Diagnostic relevance of ultrasonography was studied prospectively and controlled by peritoneoscopy and biopsy. 310 cases were investigated, 126 of these had fatty infiltration of the liver between 5% and 95%, which was diagnosed correctly in 92% of the cases by ultrasonography on the basis of increased reflexes. The incidence of correct diagnoses was 95% resp. 100% in cases with more than 10% resp. 50% fatty infiltration of the liver. Thus, diagnosis of fatty liver can be achieved with high sensitivity (fat infiltration of more than 10% may be recognized) and high specificity (only 4.35% false positives) by ultrasonography. Ultrasonography is a simple, non-invasive, and fast method suited for screening and follow-up in this condition.