[Importance of ultrasonography in the diagnosis of diffuse parenchymal disorders of the liver].

In a retrospective analysis, ultrasonographic findings were compared with the individual histological diagnosis in 49 patients with diffuse parenchymal liver disease and 5 healthy controls. Ultrasonography differentiates with great accuracy between normal liver tissue on the one hand and diffuse parenchymal liver disease such as cirrhosis and fatty liver on the other, but only poorly between cirrhosis and fatty liver. The combination of 4 single ultrasonographic criteria serves for diagnosis of liver cirrhosis with a very high degree of specificity but with low sensitivity. Among the various single criteria adopted, sound transmission is that for which interobserver variation is highest.