Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine, Vol 3, Issue 12 557-561, Copyright © 1984 by American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine
Measurement of attenuation and scatterer spacing in human liver tissue: preliminary results
F. G. Sommer, P. B. Gregory, L. L. Fellingham, R. A. Stern, M. Nassi, J. Weissberg and H. Solomon
A study measuring two quantitative parameters of human liver in vivo was
performed to assess the reliability of measurement of the two parameters,
and to evaluate their potential for diagnosing and grading diffuse fibrotic
liver disease. The parameters measured were attenuation and "mean scatterer
spacing," a measure of tissue structure. Components of variance analysis
demonstrated that variation in the measured parameters was a function of
the subject being examined, with significant variation noted between data
acquisition sessions performed the same day. There was no significant
additional variation of the measurements from week to week over a one-month
period. A good correlation of the parameters with the severity of liver
disease indicates that the technique may be useful in the clinical
evaluation of diffuse liver disease.
